Edward Abbey quotes / Conversations - 22nd September 2004 / a*star and an achilies heel of its scholarship system / PRCs in Singapore

Quote of the Post: "From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm." - Edward Abbey

More fun Edward Abbey quotes:

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others."

"Every man has two vocations: his own and philosophy."

"Proverbs save us the trouble of thinking. What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity."

"The gurus come from the sickliest nation on earth to tell us how to live. And we pay them for it."

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Soundbites

"voila. gabriel u are amazing. i've been walking around wondering what's been bugging me for a long time, could not give explanations to anyone, and now talking cock to u i have found the root of all my sorrow
i have a proposal for u
will u be my shrink?"
Yay. I can set up shop now.

Someone on why she never kept long hair: NANYANG
Me: is short hair a virtuous chinese girl trait? no right
Her: no in fact long hair
but communist era all the girls cut their hair short what
So now we have solid proof that Nanyang really was Communist!

u were talking about how readings are leading students astray hahahahhahaa i tell u, it's probably intentional
we've got lots of deviant lecturers in arts. its one of the reason i love arts modules much more than computing. stupid boring nerdy computing lecturers


the political science students apparently are still monitored for the rest of their lives

Minrui on why he joined Kendo: "wanted to whack pple with a stick"

Ban Xiong on me: "you are the textbook example of a bad hair day, everyday"

***

Jiahao's rage against the a*star machine post was apparently quite popular, and it seems there is a substantial vein of discontent against a*star.

"The obvious trend in response [to a*star's denying of the chance to scholars who get a GPA of less than 3.8 to immediately proceed to do their PhDs], therefore, will be that scholars are be going all-out to preserve their precious 4.0s. if this means dropping a hard course that may be useful, so be it. if this means skimping on rigorous classes and taking filler classes such as geology 101, a.k.a. 'rocks for jocks', so be it. let's take two imaginary scholars with gpas of 3.8 v. 3.3 ceteris paribus. maybe the 3.8-er took a whole bunch of filler classes for easy a's, like chinese 101 or southeast asian studies and breezed through, whereas the 3.3-er took a whole bunch of extra graduate-level classes for interest's sake; who, really, is the better student then? btw, i am not kidding about taking southeast asian studies for an easy a. more than one uiuc alum is guilty of that."

As he concludes: "a*star, watch out: you will get what you pay for. you are curdling the attitudes of an entire generation of researchers. by putting in a huge grade penalty for straying beyond the confines of the tried-and-tested boundaries of their knowledge, you will never get the true risk-taking let's-dive-into-the-unknown people who will be true blue scientists. you will forever get scholars who are academically inclined, but never academics... remember your poor ex-scholars(s) whom you have driven to madness by your asinine insistence on perfect grades. i mean it literally. people have gone mad by pushing themselves too hard. and most of the time their scholarship agencies egged them on because they fell below the holy 3.8 standard."

To no one's surprise, my brother in law supports a*star's policy, since we have to justify the use of taxpayers' money. And he claims that if people go for the easier classes, they will be called up to account for their actions. As if it is possible, from thousands of miles away, to know if PHYS3541 is radically easier and less challenging than PHYS3591.

Apparently he hasn't learnt from all his management books that you cannot reduce people (especially those you value) to mere numbers, which after all are inadequate as measures of a person's worth. The answer to life, the universe and everything may be 42, but to measure the future worth of a PhD student to Singapore with his GPA smacks of folly. I guess he's been a bureaucrat for so long, he's totally adopted their way of thinking.


Meanwhile, closer to home, we have rumblings of discontent as well: "it sucks. s/u a module because u think u can't get an A. its like everything boils down to grades grades grades. and it does. why bother to study. lets all just get 1st class honours. never mind whether u actually learn anything."

"Even NUS is going that route. So, you have fourth year honours students taking first year modules so that they can pull up their GPA above the cut-off for their 1st class."

The law of unintended consequences strikes again. Or maybe they aren't so unintended - there's a reason why I call NUS the premier institution of social engineering.

***

I've received a request from a friend who wants to share her mortification with the world. A prepared message follows:

"i was at the toilet at clementi macs when this PRC (CONFIRMEd from the way she talked) went into the toilet.. guess what? she happily did her business WITHOUT CLOSING THE CUBICLE door.. and i know for sure she did her business coz on her way out she was still zipping up..... ....

seriously PRCs give chinese a damn bad name

even in other countries.. wah lau. like ppl tend to think singaporeans are PRC... bad bad bad."

Meanwhile Screwed Up Girl was in a tiny fitting room at Takashimaya when a PRC woman under the age of 30 barged in, asking if she could share the fitting room, since there was only one fitting room there.

***

I love these spammers:

"Hi . My name is Augustin . I am a boy withoute family , and of course no money .
I am not a rich person , i growed up in an orfenish house . Now i am living with another two buys in a small apartament , and we are trying to finish the school , so we can have a good job sometime .
We had many problems in the past , but harde or no , they were resolved.
Now i have a verry big problem.
I had an accident , and i losed my left eye .
i can`t see with only one eye , because it is geting bad efect from the left one .
I would like to you help me with even one dollar , so i can take my eye back in a day .
i will accept your donations happy , and hope will not be a so big disturbing for you .
I would like also to help you with something for helping me .
I know so many about computers .
If you need something i can help you happy .
Thank you verry much for your attention .
here i have some informations from a bank acount i created to you can help me easyer .
NAME : OLARIAN, AUGUSTIN MARADONA
BANK ACOUNT : RO23 BTRL 03602201619679XX
I hope those infos are enought for you to help me . and honestly , please tell me how can i help you .
I would like to help you somehow for this help , coz i know you wouldn`t like to share your money with unknow persons .
I know web design , i know some linux , i know some secure tricks for your acounts , your credit card .. and p.s i know some tricks to you protect your money .
I hope it deserve to give one or more dollars if you want , and get my help .
Please don`t be like my guvern , they don`t give 2 cents on me couse i have no family . i hope you are more helpfull then my guvern , who wanted to arrest me , when i told them what i know , and that they can stop the internet fraud if they listen me .
Anyway i will wait for your reply , and thank you in advance .
Good day .


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