Sunday, November 06, 2005

"I felt like poisoning a monk." - Umberto Eco, on why he wrote the novel "The Name of the Rose."

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Source on SMU students asking stupid questions: im not surprised that u think they asked stupid qns. coz i used to think so too. i refused to degrade myself to that state. then i suffered badly.

get A for examination based subjects, but B for those with heavy weightage on participation. ive learnt to go with the flow.

Me: haha
basically you must ask stupid questions to score marks huh

why not ask smart questions?

Source: no, basically u need to talk.
where got so many smart qns to ask. or maybe becoz pple arent that smart anyway. lol

people will think u made that [Ed: This conversational extract] up

Me: so you regret going to SMU now?

Source: sometimes. honestly ah, i thought i could spoil market here. lol. end up so many ppl are smarter than me over here.
and those who aren't as smart are more thick-skinned. they asked stupid qns and score better than me

smart ones usually know everything. and when they asked, its probably smart qns too. but they have learnt to go with the flow to even ask things they already know.

i remember people asking things that were explained so explicitly in the textbook but was not brought up in class. im sure they got the qn only after reading the text. lol

Me: bah
SMU is a sham man

how high is participation?

Source: 15,20,25% it all depends

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He Who Must Not Be Named took a bite of my Timeout ice-cream stick and remarked that it was really good. He then took another bite.

I remarked that it was because, unlike cheap Ma-laysian ice-cream, this was not vanilla-flavoured ice cream coated with an artificial chocolate-flavoured coating, but had the real stuff in it. Oops - I forgot that for the past few years, in their never-ending quest to con consumers, they've changed their terminology from "artificial" to "nature identical". Oh, and the probable lack of palm oil was most likely also a factor.

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Boys, the floor is yours - "Evidence suggests that the pendulum has swung in favour of girls. Teaching is term-based and suits women teachers, who have come to be a majority. The curriculum is increasingly focused on steady coursework (which girls automatically prefer) rather than dramatic sudden-death exams (which boys are supposed to like). The whole system is increasingly feminised, which may account for the fact that boys are doing badly. This week’s figures have just over half of all British boys not reaching a proper standard of literacy and numeracy by 11 years old. In the US, where worry on this subject is more advanced than here, 70 per cent of children with learning disabilities are male, and 80 per cent of high school dropouts are male. A sense is growing on both sides of the Atlantic that education has derogated from its duty to boy-nature by going all girly. Boys, they say, need something else."

High school orders students to stop blogging - "Officials say decision motivated by cyber safety concerns, not censorship"
"Safety" and "security" - the 2 big red herrings.