"I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me." - Dave Barry

***

The archives for May 2002 and June 2002 have been restored in the wake of my post on SMM life in Days Were The Those (Singapore Army Stories).

Read more about life in the old SMM when it was at the now-deserted Ulu Pandan camp, and also about the first week I spent in 42SAR, which was one of the best in my time as a slave (excluding times on leave or clearing days off, of course) - search for the words "Restored Post".

***

WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Qualitative Comparison of the Health Risks of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use

"A useful way of assessing the health risk posed by cannabis use is a comparative qualitative appraisal of its risks with those of other widely used recreational of its risks with those of other widely used recreational drugs such as alcohol and tobacco (ARF/WHO, 1981). The motive for such comparisons is to use a common standard when making societal decisions about the control and regulation of cannabis use. Like tobacco, cannabis is most commonly smoked, and like alcohol, cannabis is commonly used for its intoxicating and euphoriant effects in developed societies (although it may be used for more utilitarian reasons, such as, making heavy physical work tolerable, in some developing countries). The opiates provide a useful illicit drug class against which to calibrate the adverse effects of cannabis since this class of drugs has a fearsome although not always deserved reputation as a major risk to the health of young adults. Nonmedical use of opiates is initially primarily for euphoria or for relief of pain.

Alcohol intoxication is strongly associated with aggressive and violent behaviour. The relationship is complex, and the nature and extent of drinking's causal effect remains controversial at the level of the individual drinker. But there is good causal evidence that changes in the level of alcohol consumption affect the incidence of violent crime, at least in some populations. There is also increasing evidence to indicate that alcohol may play a role in suicide. There is little to suggest that causal relationship of cannabis use to aggression or violence, at least in present-day developed societies.

Third, there is a major health risk of acute alcohol use that is not shared with cannabis. In large doses alcohol can cause death by asphyxiation, alcohol poisoning, cardiomyopathy and cardiac infarct. There are no recorded cases of overdose fatalities attributed to cannabis, and the estimated lethal dose for humans extrapolated from animal studies is so high that it cannot be achieved by recreational users.

... withdrawal symptoms are either absent or mild after dependent cannabis users abruptly stop their cannabis use, whereas the abrupt cessation of alcohol use in severely dependent drinkers produces a well defined withdrawal syndrome which can be potentially fatal.

Third, there is good evidence that chronic heavy alcohol use can indirectly cause brain injury - the Wernicke-Korsakov syndrome - with symptoms of severe memory defect and an impaired ability to plan and organise. With continued heavy drinking, and in the absence of vitamin supplementation, this injury may produce severe irreversible cognitive impairment. There is good reason for concluding that chronic cannabis use does not produce cognitive impairment of comparable severity."

***

Pope Toast - "Before we even turned on the news or opened the paper this morning, we knew that the Vatican had chosen a new pope. How? Well, as we were making toast for our breakfast, a puff of white smoke issued from the toaster. Then we were amazed to find what was surely a sign from on high: a piece of toast emblazoned with the unmistakable image of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict XVI."

I got linked by a Catholic Forum for my quoting the Straight Dope on Saint Philomena. Whee. And someone spammed me with 18kb of information on Saint Philomena. Wonderful.

Playboy.com Offers Exclusive Image Gallery and Video Formatted for Sony's PlayStation Portable(R) - "Playboy.com today has announced its next step in delivering digital and downloadable beauties with the launch of its newest feature "PlayboyStation Portable." Given the tremendous popularity of the new Sony PlayStation Portable(R), Playboy.com has created a sci-fi themed pictorial of the Cyber Girl of the Year 2005 Amy Sue Cooper that was photographed and formatted specifically for viewing on this device."
Gah.

Interesting articles on Yawning Bread on HIV test kits not being approved because they were considered too "lewd" (wth?!), and on the casino decision. The Grand Prix was ended because it was supposed to encourage speeding?! Erm, right.

***

I saw a guy with short spiky hair in school, and he was wearing a white hairband. Huh? In other news, more and more girls are sporting boyish hair, almost always gelled. I wish I could say the same about males shattering archaic norms of proper gender behavior. Perhaps the theory about it being okay for girls to wear blue but not for guys to wear pink is right: people consider it okay for inferiors to aspire to superiority, but not for superiors to bring themselves down to the levels of their inferiors.

Someone accused me of growing my hair out to get attention. I pointed out that if I'd wanted attention, I'd have dyed it.

For one project, the all girl group did jewelry. My all guy group didn't do a typically male topic, though. Hmmph.


Exam tales

My sources have been telling me tales of what school looks like during exam period, so the following is all compiled from second hand data, since I study (or try to, anyway) at home.

Apparently when the Central Library opens at 8am, it's like a shopping centre holding a sale. People are waiting outside the doors, and once the doors open, they rush in. Apparently one morning there was this PRC in running attire, and as he ran in he was laughing, perhaps driven mad by the stress of the exam period.

Meanwhile, in Engineering people bring hammocks to school for their overnight camping expeditions (maybe they think the spirits of Engineering students of years gone by will infuse them with their power, wisdom and knowledge), and hang them by the handles on the windows. They also bring enough food enough, according to my friend, to last him half a year. At one location, after a few hours the whole corridor (which is air-conditioned) smells of cup noodles.

Over at Science, people mug overnight in the canteen and the next day, they're still raring to go, so they continue mugging throughout the day. In Medicine, there are "PRC couples making out in the medicine library", with "unshaven armpits, unshaven moustaches, and fucking bad dress sense". Someone else adds that: "oh man they all smell weird".

And in Yusof Ishak House (YIH), there's a 24 hour study room, so people get really hardcore. The libraries at least have closing times, so people are forced to leave. In YIH, however, people camp overnight, and the floor is strewn with plastic bags. It is also crowded, unhygienic and humid, so diseases easily spread. All in all, the place looks like a refugee camp. Meanwhile Munchie Monkey's has unveiled a supper menu and gone 24 hours, so the muggers can ensconce themselves in YIH 23/7 (the room is cleaned for an hour daily) all the way from the start of the exam period to the end of it.

All throughout the school, libraries are jammed up (though my No 1 fan tells me that there's a 'surprisingly high number of cute guys in library this semester'). There are more people with outbreaks on the face, and instant drink machines run out of coffee. Printers go into overdrive as people who have never printed their notes before go print a whole semester's worth of notes at the sole printer, clogging it up. All hell breaks loose.

This is awfully depressing, and enough to get one to study at home. Maybe studying's a social activity for them; mutual suffering is a time-honoured ritual of human bonding.

[Addendum: skye bleu: the PRC students they put some "tea leaf" kinda sediments in their water
bottle and they ALWAYS dump the sediments when they empty their contents in the
dispenser.. GROSS.. could someone teach them some manners? haha!!]


Quotes:

There will be 5 questions, and you just answer all questions, okay? To save you the trouble of thinking which one to choose. Because invariably I, I notice if I give you a choice you will spend more time thinking how, what to choose than you actually do the problems (doing)

Don't write unnecessarily. Don't write your life history, or or or, go and describe your dog or whatever.

Now if you, if you look at the mirror, English you know - ambulance, if you, if you actually you must have seen all the ambulances, especially you see, you walk around here - NUS is just nearby. If you look at the ambulances you'll see on the front of the ambulances, there's a word. What looks like a word. If you look at it you see: how come this, this guy doesn't know English? The words are ups-, looks like but they're not word. Maybe the guy's I - dys'lick'sic, suffers from dys'lick, dys'lick'sear, reverses the the the, the position of the words. (dyslexic, dyslexia)

Vee curls making safe turns (vehicles)

[On the wonders of the web] The image search is very interesting. You type in 'beer' you get pornography.

[On game theory in the airline industry] Let's say Boeing is already very fat. Airbus is very thin. Boeing doesn't need to eat anymore... Boeing eats too much, then it grows too fat and explodes. Airbus goes to other restaurants to eat.

car nerg model (Cournot)

Co'yo'to protocol (Kyoto)

Yellow gold jewel'ler'ree (jewellery)

Twelve ounce (troy)

ack zit (exit)

Elevant the problems of oversaturation (alleviate)

a more modern fill (feel)

Some pors'tation of future trends (postulation)

these jewel'ler'rees (jewellery)

[On being a Bishop] What talent do you need? Turn Undead?