"The happiest place on earth"

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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

6 days' worth of quotes:

If you don't like evolution, too bad. I don't like Freud, I think he was wrong, but I've to admit he had a big influence on psychology.

The colour of my hair is partially inherited, but it has been bleached by many decades spent in the tropics.

[On mate attractiveness] You have to be really outstanding to be a complete no-no - a really comforting thought for all of you.

When you pick up a baby and you go beela beela blah... Your mother didn't sit there with a cane and said: 'You must be nice to children'.

I grow orchids, occasionally. If I breed a pink, fragrant orchid... and call it ***'s Glory, or some other stupid name.

Discussions start now. Not in 2 weeks' time. You look absolutely appalled.

[To a student with her back to the screen] Presumably, it would be good - right, it would be good if you could face the screen.

You guys should be reading! Reading reading reading. Believe me. You'll never get another chance like this. I've been teaching in NUS for 19 years.

You're not going to be late next time, are you? The taxi didn't drive into the swimming pool.

[On the wide variation in human mental capability] Why are we so variable? [Student: Environmental factors. You might be hit by a car and become retarded.] I'm excluding all those... and mad brain surgeons.

[On Evolutionary Psychology] If there are any creationists here, it's alright, I understand, never mind.

Some governments to this day believe that selective breeding is good. The phrase 'graduate mothers' is running through my mind.

It's available in the Forum bookshop. It's 30 dollars. Is that a lot? It's a big discount. It's 80 dollars outside.

Suppose you've a friend who's reluctant to contribute during tutorial. Encouraging her will increase your participation mark.

We had a very nice discussion. 7 hour flight. We didn't talk for 7 hours. We fell asleep. He fell asleep on me, but that's another story.

I asked him: What are Singaporean students interested in? He told me... Blogging. Singaporean students are very interested in expressing their opinions electronically online. I landed, I read the Straits Times. There was some blogging convention and everyone was very excited about it. Do any of you know about this? *silence from audience*

At the end of the day... *Calls up IVLE forum statistics screen with people's faces* Sorry. Would that person come down please? No, no.

As about most things in life, quality is important. Don't post idle responses like: 'No.', 'I don't think so.' It's good for you to express an opinion... 'I don't think so' won't earn you many marks.

[On IVLE forum posting] I hope you'll get the comments thing going, just like in your blog. Is that an embarrassing thing? 'I have a blog'. Eventually you may tell me.

[On the term paper] The length I'm expecting is between 2000 and 2500 words. Too short, I know, I know.

It's TBA here. Who here knows what TBA is?... Good. You know what TBA is. A lot of people ask me: 'What is TBA?'

It's very difficult to fail this course.

Originally I decided to have you submit the term paper after the mid-semester break. I must have been feeling really good that day. I decided to give you a few extra weeks.

Are there any questions? *There is no response from the audience* Just as I thought. I'm sure I'll get a bunch of emails.

[On a Powerpoint slide with Fireworks in the background and titled 'To the youth of Singapore'] You might be wondering what this means. I missed the National Day Parade last night. I was sick. In bed all night. This is my way of celebrating. Fireworks.

[On the anaemic response from youth about suggestions on what to do about the Youth Park in Singapore] Out of the several thousand youth, only several hundred responded... They were probably forced.

I have some questions you might want to ask yourself. Question number one. [Powerpoint flashes: 'Are you going to read the texts before the tutorial?']

[On essay mills] I brought this up to show that it's not for you. First of all, it's expensive. Forty dollars.

I was reading the Straits Times. There was an article by a Singaporean woman. It was about Singaporean men. [Student: Sumiko Tan]

I found out some students forgot what they learnt in state'tistics (statistics)

You will be dree'vern to do those questions. (driven)

Your matric number, your nair'm (name)

I learned how to con'few expect, expectations (compute)

[On group homework] If you find one student does not participate, or you really hate that member, you can not write their name down. (choose not to)

All these term and conditions I should put in small font, just like credit cards (I should put all of these terms and conditions in a small font, just like on credit cards)

That is why it is fun to learn Econometrics. Actually it's quite fun to do this module. Most of the models you'll learn [in other modules]... are quite trivial.

Have you been to the *** lecture yet? I think it's a test not only of *** concepts, but of listening comprehension concepts.

Tomorrow's weather to be rare'ning (rainy - but he means 'raining')

A lone commute (long)

If you go to probability courses you will go crazy because it is very abstract.

We have assigned 1 random variable to diss'cries (describe)

I have 5 copies of the textbook here for students who cannot comfortably afford it. You can come and get it after class or later.

[On sending out handouts before the class] For handouts, I can teach faster, so you can learn more. That's a good thing.

Different schools tend not to talk to each other. Berkely is very Neo-Classical. I'm from Penn, we're New Keynesian.

[On Economics] Why do we need math? How many of you like math?

[On savings in the inter-temporal consumption decision] You die at the end of the second period, so if you have no children, and ou assume you have no friends, it's gonna be zero.

This stick our first class (is)

sith topics (six)

the a'sand'ments (assignments)

I will post ze assignments (the)

I'm forced to ferry in (carry)

We recommended five textbooks [for this module]

My a'standing (understanding)

the lust year (last)

two bandouts (bundles)

bar'geet constraint (budget)

ack 2 (x)

What happens if the price is change? (changed)

then what happen? (happens)

bandles (bundles)

sar'posse (suppose)

right and god (angled)

nominer function (non-linear)

act one (x)

core doh'n laugh utility function (Cobb-Douglas)

laugh at the hypocrite (partial derivative)

co-doh'glar (Cobb-Douglas)

We have no chains (change)

menace (minus)

plays a very important rule (role)

bar'teet (budget - pronounced with a muted t at the end)

[On Monday morning] Poor thing. You look absolutely exhuasted. It must've been a terrible weekend. You stagger into class. The first week is over, Orientation week is over... Wake up, wake up.

[On WD Hamilton] He was very mathematical... His supervisor didn't understand what the hell he was doing, so he very nearly didn't get his PhD.

[On how some explain why aunts invest more in their nieces and nephews than uncles] Aunts are women. And women have more oooh-ah factor.

[On a module] it's more like a level 5000 listening compre module than a level 3000 *** module (MSN)
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