This is like the Chinese drama principle on drunkenness: Those who demur that "我没醉" (Wo3 Mei2 Zui4 - I'm not drunk) are inevitably wasted.
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More weird shit I get via my feedback form:
Subject: god is a computer
Email: tretchery@theestablishsment.com
Message: Program on the emergence of civilization.
"14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa."
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it's applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals, so this nulified diversity of life claims on sub-continental Africa.
god is a computer
And we're all on auto-pilot.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as "god"
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management –
3. Mafia aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere ("On planets where they approved evil.")
Then we come to terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Enough evidence was present to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
I think he's trying to screw with my mind.
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More feedback:
"u just sounds like a blardee kiasu singaporean to me..."
Uhh. Right.
[Editor's note: We never publish email addresses or reveal identities unless it is obvious that they are fake]
And another one:
"No offence, but you've actually built up quite a rep as the great Anti-Christian crusader."
Ooh.
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Recovering Christians: Non-falsification [Reworked version of an old post]
"Something that has always intrigued me is how people are able, through post-hoc rationalisation, to attribute everything to their god and to say that his will, mercy, grace et al are being displayed.
Take the case of someone getting into a serious accident. For every possible outcome, a rationalisation that involves praising and thanking his god can be found:"
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I've always wondered how my peers can have their handphones:
- lost
- stolen/pickpocketed
- fall out of their pockets
- get shortcircuited when they're dunked in bodies of water (though this was a problem only a few years back: now people are smart enough to pat the dunkee down before dunking him/her, and the first word shouted out is "Handphone!" instead of "Dunk him!")
Miss NUS lovingly chronicles how her friend went through 5 phones in less than 2 years.
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The trend sweeping China - leg-lengthening
"Kong Jing-wen has paid £5,700 to have both of her legs broken and stretched on a rack. The pretty college graduate is now lying in bed, clearly still in considerable pain three days after a doctor sawed through the flesh and bone below her knee to insert what looks an awful lot like knitting needles through the length of her tibiae.
These giant steel pins are connected by eight screws punched horizontally through her ankle and calf to a steel cage surrounding each leg. Once the bone starts to heal, these cages will act like a medieval torture device - each day over the next few months Kong will turn the screws a fraction and stretch her limbs more and more until she has grown by 8cm.
Despite the agony, the cost and the inconvenience, the 23-year-old says she does not regret a thing. "It hurts, but it will be worth it to be taller. I'll have more opportunities in life and a better chance of finding a good job and husband.""
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It sucks to be a hall inmate:
"Dear Fellow KeviIans,
This year, the NUS Centennial Flag Day falls on the 2nd August 2005 (Tuesday). On this day, be it seniors or first year Keviians, we will flag together from 5.00am to 6.00pm for our hall in various venues throughout Singapore. In keeping with the essence of Flag Day, this money will be channelled to the 20 charity organizations that NUSSU adopts. Let’s us do our part in helping those who are less fortunate.
The briefing for Flag Day will take place in Com Hall this Monday (1st August 2005) at 8pm. Attendance is compulsory.
As a Keviian, you have the responsibility to flag for our Hall. Whoever that does not flag on 2nd August 2005, he or she will be blacklisted or considered to be expelled, at our recommendation and at Master’s discretion. However, seniors who are overseas, attending clinical tutorials in hospitals, or doing their internship attachment will be exempted. Float members who are recommended by Float Head are excused also.
All first year Keviians must flag on Flag Day. No excuse will be accepted. Those who flag for their faculty will be considered absent, and will be taken as shirking from hall’s responsibility. Any queries please put forward on the Monday’s Flag Briefing.
Your participation is crucial in making the Flag Day a success. A bit of effort, sweat and discomfort on our part just for one day will go a long way in helping the needy. Various plans of rewarding your hardwork are being considered and shall be announced on Monday night."
Those who flag for their faculty will be considered absent, and will be taken as shirking from hall’s responsibility.
This is preposterous and ridiculous. If you skip flag day entirely it's one thing (not that anyone cares), but why can't you flag for other people?
Clearly, their obsession with being the hall that gathers the most money has gone to their heads. "Helping the needy" my foot.
Their resorting to such measures just exposes their "hall spirit" as ersatz and a sham. I hope that inmates in other halls aren't subjected to such cruel and unusual punishment.
[Update: It has been brought to my attention that the person who drafted this email has been suitably castigated for his, ah, enthusiasm.]
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An acquaintance in LSE (?):
"Then at the cusp of university, I thought that the A levels would have sorted out the chaff, leaving those capable of independent thought - at last, I would be in the company of stimulating peers. How wrong I was. University students are just as boring and conformist. If independent thought is to be the salvation of the species, then we're probably doomed."
It's comforting in a sense to know that this problem is not exclusive to the Premier Institution of Social Engineering.
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Pinquan tut tuts Professor Lim Chong Yah's comments on foreign workers depressing wages in Singapore:
‘Maybe we should not allow a too free flow of very low value-added labour, very low-wage labour to Singapore,’ said Prof Lim, adding that such an ‘excessive supply will dampen the wage rate among the lower-income people’.Why does Prof Lim not see lower wages as desirable? After all, the flip side of lower wages is lower cost of production, lower prices for consumers. Resources are allocated more efficiently. More income becomes more consumption, and more jobs are created with higher wages. Markets clear and almost everyone is better off: the migrant workers who have found employment with significantly better wages and working conditions than back home, the consumers who enjoy lower prices, and the displaced workers who find better employment elsewhere. Those displaced and unable or unwilling to adapt will be less well off.
My take on it: Achieving productive efficiency is well and good, but consider the following:
- We have a very open economy. So low wages do not necessarily translate into low prices due to imported inputs as well as imported goods
- Lower wage bills do not necessarily lead to lower prices. The difference can be retained as profit by enterprises, especially since the labour market is imperfect
- Wages will be lowered only in some sectors/levels, but not in others. For example, the IT industry won't be affected, and neither will architects [high end of the construction industry - broadly speaking], but local construction foremen will be out of jobs
- With lower wages, consumers have less money to spend on goods, so the effect of lower wages on real income is unpredictable
- In the long run markets clear, but in the long run we're also all dead
- As the SMU professor mentioned: 'Workers are now bearing the brunt of globalisation and only shareholders are gaining . . . our wage share of GDP is low, but the profit share of GDP is high... This widening income gap means that Singapore has a 'First World per capita income but a Third World income structure'. As a result, it is 'difficult to stimulate domestic consumption' and consumer spending is weak.