Note to self: I don't have exams, so i should be considerate to others and not send long emails detailing my imminent return to singapore OR hold them up with long MSN conversations about turtles living in sewers and DAT classes. Really.

I've got 15 hours to pack my room, clean my house, do all the pesky domestic chores, hand in my RIPE forms ... and sleep. Guess which one takes precedence. =P

****************

Should i actually be bothered to do all the nitty gritty domestic humdrums? given that they only use the apartment to catch their 8 hour/7 hours/6 hours' sleep and they may not even care ... hey, for all i know, they might know i blog here and might be reading this this very moment! ha how about that? if you're reading this could you give me yr opinion in the comments box? or better yet, tell me in person. haha! yah!

****************

Oh God don't let this be what happened last year... i almost had a heart attack when i had 2 minutes to runtothebanktomakeadepositandrunback

"Simple. sleep now and wake up on time and DON'T DALLY."

****************

Queen victoria market in melbourne, Australia has a new stall of nuts, muesli and dried/dehydrated fruits! It's in the upper shed, row K i believe, nearer the meat section than the opposite side (queen st? the end with the pub and nando's) ... they have the most amazing range of things including vegetable chips (which i should get at some point for my bro). And i saw dried strawberry pieces as well!!! Most of them cost abt AUD$22.40 a kilo .. which is reasonable considering 20kg of fresh fruit usually yields 1kg of dried fruit. Try it try it try it! The muesli mixes look tempting as well.

****************

Next project: black and white photos of melbourne. Pub at QVM (for chink!), a long-exposure one at NikeMelbourne (where else?), a breadtop shopfront, the weird signs at the wing cheong alley in chinatown, maybe a long one down a stretch of lygon st, crown casino (in the day or at night?). I'd like a shot of docklands from a bird's eye view... half constructed. The river yarra at dusk, with all the bats (do i have an obsession with bats?) . A tram trundling to a stop at the end of the line. The state library, with its retinue of public speakers on a weekend afternoon. The unsheltered homeless on swanston and russell sts. Rude waiting staff in chinatown. The parks in and around the city - botanic parliament fitzroy flagstaff carlton princes. My buddies and my friends (the parks i mean). Would this be the concluding chapter of my foray into place poetry?

****************

"What is amazing about the dismissal of "mere grumbling" and "complainers" so fashionable in Singapore's political discourse is the inversion it has effected, so that the structures that should be the temporary servants of our will are regarded as the ultimate reality, and the living intentions and sensibility of the people - our vital consciousness - seem to us hollow illusions. The two need not be divorced: it is only violent suppression that has caused their divergence."


"But just for amusement and the general edification of other posters...my favourite section of the Penal Code, s. 509

Word or gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman.
509. Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.

So guys (what about the transgendered?) can't get insulted? Or are we i.e. males suppose to be so hot-tempered that we get provoked with the slightest insult in which case we plead provocation? =)"

***

And now this hour finds me at a Tanger Factory Outlet cluster in Kittery, Maine, for the 5th shopping trip in 9 days (and 8 full days). (insert familiar refrain). This trip will probably be rounded off with 2 days in factory outlets near New York (for a minimum of 7 shopping trips in 13 days [12 full days]), but - thank god - I will be doing more interesting and less repetitive things in New York itself at that juncture.

Observations:

1) Yahoo mail doesn't show advertisements anymore. Which is a good thing for me, as a consumer. No ads, good thing, consumer happy. All you big money-making web company-thingies, take heed.

2) Good try, knightofpentacles, with Dr. Sara Israels. You get the accolades.
Was actually gunning for Dr. Maureen Andrews, on whom there is little information on the ingternet. (i believe Dr. Israels and Dr. Andrews would have come from the same lab working group). No she is not a poet, nor is she a horse jockey, she was a humble woman who passed away before the rise of the Ingternet as a global repository of information. Which may explain why there is precious little information on her. Accolades for the next person who can find web pages featuring her. Here is an example.

3) I'm sorry for waking you up today, and i'll try to help you with yr golf clubs if i do go up to the capital. And i know it's only gonna be for a month, but i'm going to miss the late nites hanging out, looking at yr latest projects or just talking abt random stuff ... i'm gonna miss you.

4) Due to poor budgeting this month, i am left with barely enough money to take the shuttle bus one way to the airport to return home next week. Which means no spending money between now and leaving melbourne... no matter how tempting. It's do-able ... i'll survive.

Dawn, Because of all your gracious compliments about my culinary skills And because you are an all-round wondering and caring person, i shall make it a POINT to bake a cake for your birthday. And it shall be a New one, a recipe no one has tried before. And it shall look "pro", not a champalang thing that got thrown together for its own sake, but like something out of a bakery - only not too professional, otherwise it would be indistinguishable from a store-bought cake. And like all birthday things this shall be our little secret* and nobody will tell her until 2 january 2006, okay? Only would you care to share it with your sis? (=

* Referring to andrew's notoriously bad track record at keeping any secrets involving birthdays.

And joel, i can't wait to try Chicken Goujons... mmmmmMMM!!! I have chicken breast fillets (oooh, the word "breast" appeared on Balderdash for the umpteenth time!!) waiting in the freezer for infusions of coriander, fivespice powder, spring onion, ginger, chilli, honey and soy sauce with flavours that explode in your mouth.

How does one get Agagooga-ed when Agagooga isn't around? Hmm.

Happiness is a large Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Therapy Milkshake.

***

I'm now at Prime Outlets at Lee, Massachussetts now. The plan was to drop my sister and I off while my brother in law went to the Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass. However, we found that the two places were too far apart, so he decided not to visit the Hall of Fame. So what we are doing here now, I do not know - it is the third shopping trip (and second outlet trip) we've had in 6 days. ... women.

Haha... another trivia question. Who pioneered the concept that age plays a role in the clotting mechanisms of normal kids? (clue: it's a she)

Tee hee. Agagooga's camera has a tendency to stop working whenever he goes on holiday. Hope it starts working again.

************

Meanwhile, i shall entertain you! haha... spending a few days looking forlornly at this blog waiting for something to be updated and it finally dawned upon me to put something up! (dawn u just got agagooga-ed!) crys if you're reading this this is where the studioghibli boxset is temporarily residing- making girls cry!

************

"No one expects the spanish inquisition." Can anyone identify where this quote originated from? And where and when it has been re-quoted?

I am currently in a Starbucks near a conglomeration of factory outlets near Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Dutch country - home of the Amish) now. My brother in law claimed that there was free WiFi here, but of course it needs to be paid for. Luckily, I found a coupon for a free 24 hour daypass so I can clear some things while my brother in law looks for my sister in the maze of factory outlets.

Me having my usual luck, my Canon Powershot A70, already slightly wonky before the flight though working acceptably with some patience and jiggling on my part, refused to function properly when I tried it after touchdown, being capable only of producing purple-tinged and fuzzy-static bordered shots. My brother in law offered to buy me a new camera, but I felt there was no point, since if I get a new camera, I want to look at reviews first. Furthermore, the warranty will be valid only in America. He has a Digital SLR of his own, but refuses to let me touch it, so on the occasions when we will be separated (Washington DC, Boston), I will have no photographic record of my travels.


Seems my pimping has paid off. 'isdagent' asked to join Young Republic for the following reason:

"I am an operative from G1 Army, MINDEF, interested in finding out about
the attitudes of the young Singaporeans towards National Service"

Uhh right.

I handed in my AMS thesis!!!!! FINALLY!!!!

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson, on ESP

Random playlist song: De Organographia - Music of the Ancient Greeks - Christian hymn, Anonymous 300ad

***

I just purchased the Tasks of Tantalon, the Casket of Souls and the Skull of Agarash for an undisclosed sum of money.

I was offered the Fighting Fantasy poster book for a sum almost equivalent to what I forked out for those 3, but decided I was not willing to shell out so much for 16 A3-sized posters of gamebook covers.

***

T-minus: Just under 3 hours

I will be roaming around Northeast USA from 21 May to 4th June. Some planned stops include the Smithsonian and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory in Vermont.

I may not actually spend any time in New York since parking (along with everything else) is expensive. Unfortunate, since most memories of my 1994 trip (inclusive of the Empire State, Statue of Liberty, the UN and the Cloisters) have been wiped from my mind, so horrific was that experience, having all the ingredients of the archetypical Singaporean tour: (bad) Chinese food all the way, noisy Singaporeans chattering away in Chinese and a horribly packed schedule, resulting in many stops becoming little more than quick photo opportunities - zoom, click, thank you Smithsonian!

Oh well, none of the shows on Broadway really jump out at me (I'm open to recommendations). Miss unearthly high bills for 2 people for 2 weeks (ask her for how much exactly) recommends 'Wicked' ('Long before Dorothy drops in, two girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey and how these two unlikely friends grew to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good') to me, but according to her it's fully booked till August, and I'm not willing to stand in the cancellation queue.

I'd still like to see Ground Zero and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though.

***

My No 1 fan brings word of the following discovery from Chinese radio: "HAHA someone did some study of 100 uni girls and conclulded that uni girls think uni guys are whiny and immature".

Though no one did a survey on what University guys thought of the girls, listeners' reactions were interesting:

"933 getting guys to call in and defend themselves
the guy was.... he just turned around and called the girls immature because they wear skimpy clothes around campus even tho the LTs are cold"


She also transcribed the following:

"Life! Mailbag

Be still, my heart

I refer to Mr Mok Chuan-Xin's letter, "RGS Girls Should Cheer Like RI Guys? Not True" ( Life!, May 13)

It was a response to Colin Goh's column, "RGS Girls And Their Low Growls" (Lifestyle, May 8)

Mr Mok wrote that "RGS girls rarely cheered for the RI teams anyway, unless their boyfriends were in them" and that the girls preferred the "boys in blue, our traditional rivals from Anglo-Chinese School"

Such sweeping statements are an injustice to past and present RGS girls who take pride in their identities as Rafflesians and who fervently support fellow Rafflesians, be they from Raffles Girls' School, Raffles Institution, or Raffles Junior College.

Just because boys from other schools are capable of wooing RGS girls does not mean that our loyalties shift during cheering time at sporting events.

Where else did you think RGS girls first mastered the art of separating heart from mind?

Joanna Ong Siyun"

She adds: "WAH. the last two paragraphs just sound so damn wrong, I can't even describe what's wrong. hahaha
is she simultaneously badgering RI boys' wooing skills and portraying her fellow RGS sorority's very spliced anatomy? heehee"

It's amazing to see such violent reactions to jokes.

***

Less than favourable reviews of Gunther:

PLEASUREMAN - "GÜNTHER'S debut (and hopefully last) album brings an irreverent mix of fake French accents and early '90s techno. This is one album you can definitely judge by its cover - a reclining Günther in aviator shades and pouting lips to rival Angelina Jolie... The only value that can be derived from this CD is the laughter that the cover and the PC video induce."

Gunther's mission: pleasure - "Gunther, a self-proclaimed "pleasureman" has a mullet, big pink lips and a thin black moustache. He's a man with a mission: his Web site says he's striving to make the world a more sexual place.

That seems to be clear listening to the 11 tracks on his CD. Gunther sings in the same deep and breathy tone for each of his songs. It's almost as if he's in a constant state of arousal. It's slightly disturbing after a while.

The same goes with the Sunshine Girls, Gunther's backup singers. The girls' singing isn't any surprise to the listener. It's the traditional female singing that one would associate with club techno, but with moans interspersed into the mix. If it's possible to hear someone gyrating, the girls have pulled it off.

The music on the CD is difficult to describe in terms of whether it's good or not. On one hand, it sounds like the only musical input to the CD was someone hitting the "demo" button on an old Casio keyboard. On the other, it's really catchy.

The CD functions on two levels: dance music and unbridled hilarity. The lyrics are a riot and were either written in one night or by someone who learned the English language two weeks before their composition."

***

"Public Lecture on Einstein's Nobel Prize & The Photoelectric Effect Today

In commemoration of Albert Einstein - Man of the Century Exhibition, the Centenary of Einstein's "Miraculous Year" and the International Year of Physics 2005, the Singapore Science Centre and the Institute of Physics Singapore (IPS) invite everyone to their public lecture on Einstein's Nobel Prize & The Photoelectric Effect Today.

Come dressed to look like Einstein. An Einstein Look-alike Contest will take place after the lecture. Contestants must dress like Albert Einstein at any of his poses. Rules and prizes can be viewed at <http://www.science.edu.sg>.


NUS's chicken project has gotten recognition from Ananova - Stroke a chicken over the internet

***

Elio Diodati:

"The half-eaten packets of sng muei and miscellaneous scattered bottles of rice miraculously found their way into snug, airtight containers sitting demurely on the bar counter. And look! No more bills sitting on the dining table! (I later discovered that they were surreptiously swept into my ottoman. Well, that’s certainly one way to deal with them.)

All of the above means, of course, that now I can’t find a single damned thing in my house anymore. How would I know that the “obvious” place to look for my olive oil is the lower left cabinet of the sink, just under the heaving engine of the garbage disposal? I still think leaving it next to the stove is the most convenient location, and not the fire hazard waiting to occur that my mother apparently thought it to be."

Why does this sound so familiar?! Damnit.

"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star." - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

***

I shall be departing for New York on Saturday morning, so updates from then on will be sporadic at best. Though I anticipate the usual gargantuan travelogue on my return.

I would go terrorise friends studying on the East Coast, but I don't keep track of where everyone's studying, so.

***

Musical brown from mr brown, last passed to me exactly 3 months ago from squidlet, so my answers haven't changed much:

Total volume of music files on my computer:

16.6Gb - 4055 songs — 11.25 days of music

The last CD I bought was:

The Naxos historical recording of Menuhin in 1932-36 playing BWV 1041-43 and BWV 1003, Movement 3. That was when I'd just gained my freedom in June 2004. I found this CD in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market for A$10.00. Twas cheap.

Song playing right now:

No song was playing, but when I opened Winamp I got "Bob Rivers - The Nafta Anthem"

"Our union jobs
With wages high
Will go right down the drain
If auto-makin’ Mexicans
Make economic gains"

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

This is when Audioscrobbler comes in useful.

- Jacqueline du Pre, London Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli - Haydn - Cello Concerto No 2 in D, Op 101, Hob VIIb:2 - Mvt 1 - Allegro moderato
- Aaron Waters - Power Rangers - SPD Intro
- Asian Prince - 25 Years
- Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern, New York Philharmonic/Zubin Mehta - Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Orchestra, BWV 1043 - I. Vivace
- Planescape Torment - Main Title

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

NO ONE. Muahaha. I delight in killing off memes and chain letters *g*

***

KNS comments:

"wah lah, all the students interviewed in the USP video so fugly. I couldn't stand watching it beyond the first minute. What a turnoff, who will want to sign up for USP like that ?"

In lieu of real content, I shall once again pimp Young Republic, where everyone likes to talk about National Slavery; in a 9 hour period we have an unprecedented 20 posts:


A:

> I can think of sinister
> rationales for NS (social control, since men between the ages of 18-25 are the
> main criminal offenders in all industrialised nations; or political control,
> since NS seems to acclimatise many men to abuse at the hands of authority and
> cause many to believe that being treated badly is a 'reality of life' that
> 'must be accepted' and dealt with rather than protested).

thank you B. and indeed i would suppose that you have made a terribly salient observation. i mean, look at the responses on this board: there are the incendiary replies, and then there are the 'let's move on' and 'let's get on with our lives' and 'if we can't change it, what's the point' and 'oh lookee i'm such a martyr! behold my splendid stoicism!' replies. one does not 'move on' from auschwitz, or from the gulags. there is nothing detrimental about complaining or whining: let us remember that amnesty international began with peter benenson's letter writing campaigns. admittedly not quite equivalent to complaining or whining, but demonstrative of speaking out.

> I'm not as convinced by the benign one. I do wonder if any defence needs we
> have might not be satisfactorily met, and a lot of bureaucratic excess removed from
> the army, by having about 6 months universal (i.e. men AND women) compulsory
> military -and- civil defence service, and then paying people at the market
> rates that would get people to volunteer if additional training or exercises
> are required. If defence is so important, why can't we pay for it rather than
> simply requisitioning lives?

no explanation exists, except that NS is merely quite rubbishy. i am all for national service: just not in the overhyped militant and militarised form it takes today. what is wrong with volunteering as a social worker, or a teacher, or a veterinary assistant, or an attache to a theatre comapny? these are all forms of national service: in the end the aim of national service, as is explicitly stated, is to serve the nation. you cannot force any random boy to become a soldier, you cannot defend a country with the unwilling. and that is why singapore would never survive a real war. (aside from the fact that jungle warfare and trench warfare went out about, say, sixty years ago. with WWII.)

what a farce!

love and kisses all round, especially to the insipid!


A:

"2. I'm suspecting that a big factor is economic control, and that NS helps serve as a massive counter-cyclical stabilizer for our economy. For one thing, it delays the entry of people into the labour market, and therefore can be used (in conjunction with retirement age laws) to adjust the size of the labour force. Seems to me that our labour market is slack enough as it is, with unemployment on the rise, and it would make good economic sense to delay the girls' entry in order to allow for a higher retirement age (a big demand of many senior citizens) as well as a tighter labour market? Please correct my economic reasoning if I'm wrong."

Let me correct your reasoning then. Using NS as a means of economic control is both immoral and inefficient. It is the equivalent of saying: 'Let us imprison this person for two years. This way, we can coincidentally satisfy the demand of many senior citizens to retire later!' Taking it to its logical extreme, you can say: 'Oh dear, the market is far too saturated! Let's kill these people off.' Forcing anyone to do something that he or she is unwilling to do for an economic end is immoral. Whatever happened to development as freedom?

Furthermore: aren't there better ways of achieving the final aim? The Theil principle: one should choose the method with the least opp cost. To delay entry into the labour market, does it not make more economic sense to make studying more attractive rather than sending males off to 'serve the nation'? Since studying harder will in the end equip us with more skills. And at any rate education is always a good thing. Ok I take that back, National Education is a farce.

"Thirdly, there's the danger that our army becomes staffed with all the undesirables who cannot make it in the civilian world, and all the negative consequences that result from that."

God, this is so ironic I don't know if I even need to justify this with a comment. Our army is already staffed with many undesirables who cannot make it in the civilian world. And as a result their promotions, etc, depend on the talents of the NSFs, who actually have a life waiting for them after they ORD.

But in a sense being staffed with many undesirables need not be a bad thing. Since these undesirables owe their living to the army and to the auspices of taxpayers, then if our horrible and truculent and fearful and disgusting unchristian and unwestern neighbours decide to attack us (oh the horrid prospect!), these undesirables have no choice but to fight, and the possibility of desertion is high. If one actually has a life beyond NS, then one will not be very sacrificial lamb on the behalf of a chimerical nation.

"And finally, the republican need for a citizen army is a feature of many political thinkers' systems of government from Plato all the way to the Enlightenment - in order to instill patriotism and mellow selfish individualism, in order to inculcate discipline"

This sounds very 17th century. But literally, since the Enlightenment was in the 17th-18th century. But that's not a compliment. Have you missed out on the developments of the 20th century? Do all of us look like republicans to you? Have not the excesses of nationalism been discredited by the World Wars? The old lie, dulce et decorum est? Why does this excerpt from your post sound almost fascist? Why is individualism automatically connected to selfishness? Why is patriotism an end in itself? Why is it even important? Have I not asked too many rhetorical questions?

"in order to avoid the "treachery" of the Army as a seperate interest group working against the interests of the wider nation (as you can see happening in some of our neighbours for eg) and so on."

Is not the army already behaving like a separate interest group within the nation? I'm sorry, but I really don't see us being attacked any time soon, in which the SAF as it is today is merely a perfect example of a lobby group which exists for a political end, which, as B pointed out, is social control. Or something. Defence! I would laugh, except that it is my life which is being poured down a proverbial drain.

"Personaly for me it's not a matter of squeamish inappropriateness, but to me I just feel that girls can do other useful things too other than run around in jungles etc."

So can guys. They could be teaching, or nursing, or getting a lobotomy. All of these things might be preferable (to some guys) to running around in jungles. Which, as I reiterate, is pointless. Do you think Malaysia is going to storm Bukit Timah nature reserve? If we strike back, will we take the plantations, or the heart of JB/KL?

> On females complaining about males complaining about NS (haha) -- why don't you try being the only female in an outing with NS guys, and tell me whether or not you feel like you just became invisible? I don't know about other females, I can't speak for them on this issue but personally for me, I only complain when guys complain about NS because they're talking about something that just excludes me from the conversation. It's a matter of courtesy, really. I don't think a guy will be too thrilled if girls kept talking incessantly about girly things he cannot appreciate in front of him too.

That's generalising. It is ironic that you have such immature views on the sexes, given that your previous post was an outburst against generalising. Why can't a guy be thrilled if girls talk incessantly about girly things? Why can't a guy like girly things? What are girly things? What is the definition of girly? Are you trapped in the 18th century? Why are you practising double standards? Why can you not transcend the discourse of the sexes?

If you're so offended, why not just go out with your girlfriends and talk about girly things. Maybe you could even have a pillowfight, and dress your barbies up, have a cookout and watch SATC and sob into boxes of tissue. Discuss the latest diets, have a wax party, talk about makeup. So fun, and girly too!

love and girly hugs!
xoxoxo


C:

I do think D's "economic arguments" and that women are physically weaker are not quite robust. If you discharge NSF who get seriously injured during service, or exempt pes C9s and Pes Es (surely they are "weaker" than most females.) you would give a boost to the economy too.

In fact, given that there are many women who are much fitter than males (I also did some quasi-militaristic CCA in JC, so I do know they exist), wouldn't there be a more efficient allocation if the combat vocations were allocated according to physical ability than sex?

In fact, I see no compelling reason for exempting women from "jungle bashing." if anyone should do it in the first place.


E:

The male gender doesn't owe anyone anything... so before girls conveniently wave away their grievances, they should ask themselves this question: "Is the male gender (and not female) somewhat obligated to defend the country (ie. NS)?". If so, isn't that unappreciative and unfair / a double standard? With this whole equality of the sexes spreading, with guys having to clean the house etc why not look at such social responsibilities too? How would you like it if when a guy is asked, "What do you think about women complaining about housework?" "What is there to complain about? There is alot of tough stuff for work too!" "Don't you think you should do some of the housework too?" "What?! (ridiculous) *vehement NO*. I mean, men have the comparative advantage in the workplace, etc... women are biologically inclined to be the caretakers of the home. C'mon, they were the berry pickers back a long time ago what..."


F:

Is conscription necessary?

This is tenacious but the old Goh Keng Swee believed firmly in this. He used to state a few reasons why.

3)a large armed forces projects power(ok this is not really Goh's idea, its relatively new)- we have shifted from the poison shrimp principle to power projection(an offensive army exudes diplomatic pressure-Lawrence freedman). Singapore is thus feared and respected in the region due to its overwhelming strength despite its underwhelming size.

Point 3 is potentially the undoing of our nation in the long run. here is why...

Power projection means that Singapore must increase spending dramatically thereby fostering a military complex that would become too political to do away with in the future. Vested interests in industries like DSTA which though acclaimed to be the best military tech research institute in SEA is really peanuts compared to the greater west and even austrailia. When the brightest minds of our time are invested the military(SAFOs and SMS, all good and jolly) and many of them ministers in the future, a strong military of this scale becomes an entrenched mindset. This is all good during economic prosperity but come the day of the crunch, we have to be ready to see that we are preserving an army that is larger than necessary, employing resources in a wasteful fashion and benefits the higher ups in society rather than the average man on the street. It is hard to see how a country that does not have a strong mulitplier spend so much on its military where its health care costs burgeon through the ceilings and the great income gulf widens by the day.


B:

>We'd rather not take up
> the SAFOS scholarship, for eg, in spite of the tremendous perks dangled
> before us. We have certain long-term goals that are fundamentally
> incompatible with a military career, that no amount of pecuniary incentive is
> going to compensate for. And as long as you have people enjoying comparable
> salaries and better working conditions in another part of the economy, the
> Army is always going to be viewed by the majority (who value both money and
> quality of life, and the former often as a means to the latter) as a career
> of desperation that one seeks to get out of if one is unfortunate to have to
> enter.

YOU see it as a career of desperation that one seeks to get out of if one is unfortunate to have to enter. This does not have to be the case for everyone. Perhaps this perception is a function of NS? Perhaps if the army had remained professional this perception would not have arisen? There are many people whose long-term goals may well include serving the nation and working in a military career, or may come to include that if it appears to be sufficiently materially secure. This includes not only the SAFOS scholars to whom you refer (a vanishingly small proportion of the population) but also to the nation more generally. Even as matters stand there are regulars. If the army was no longer seen as slave work, and if it faced decent remuneration, I don't see any reason why there wouldn't be more. This question of societal perception is as much a product of the status quo as it is a (as you claim) factor in producing it.

It is argued by some that before the introduction of NS the military was seen as a profession preferred by many Malays. (See 'Malays in Singapore', Tania Li, it is out of print but you may be able to get it in some academic libraries.) The reason why the refusal to place Malays in important positions - or, indeed, in some cases, to call them up for service at all, resulting in them liable to be called up for many years and therefore unemployable in the private market - the reason why these policies rankled so much in the 70s is at least partly because they disrupted a large part of the traditional livelihood of the Malay community. Men whose expertise and professional pride lay in the military were no longer able to succeed there. They were UNHAPPY to be excluded from the military. Is it so impossible that a reasonable group of people might come to feel the same way in a world without

I'm not sure what to make of your claim that everyone suffers equally. I wonder how many people in this list went into BMT platoons with any significant proportion of people who did not do A Levels. So many scholars go into Officer Cadet School and become trained to order the rank and file (a rank and file that almost inevitably consists of the less privileged) to their deaths.

>Under the market alternative, without either patriotism or pride, we substitute
>the weak incentive of money. I seriously doubt this is the way to build an
>effective defence force.

Under the status quo, without patriotism, pride, or money, we substitute coercion. Hooray! An effective defence force!

Smoochies for all (since we've started a trend)


A:

it seems to my mind that G, you are being terribly disingenous. i have no idea if you are truly naive, or if you are merely ignoring facts wholly inconvenient to your argument.

this took the cake: ' On the other hand, conscription of a civilian army works precisely because it's democratic.'

how is forcing a grand majority of males to give up 2-2.5 years of their lives against their will in any way democratic? is it because everyone merely goes through the same rubbish? the treatment of the jews in germany then was very democratic. the corvee then was very democratic. the levee en masse was then very democratic.

'Everyone suffers equally and you don't get let off on account of your class, education level, or wealth.'

That was also laughably bad. What about race? Everyone suffers equally? What about the many Malays who want to make it to OCS but can't, even though the army does not officially discriminate? (Or does it. Refresh my memory.) Your quaint notion of suffering equally is also easily demolished by merely taking a look at the batches which go in: from the more 'slack/relac' scholar intakes of january to the extra 'siong' mono-intakes. the differences are both stark and stunning. 'White horses' and 'specialist letters' aren't the only means of differential treatment. Once again: I have no idea if you really and truly live in an ideal world where the truth hasn't hit you hard, or if you are deliberately ignoring the facts to make good your case, or both.

'Under the market alternative, without either patriotism or pride, we substitute the weak incentive of money. I seriously doubt this is the way to build an effective defence force. And, as I've argued, if the Army is just a mercenary force working for pay, their willingness to die for their employers becomes very very suspect.'

Haha! This made me laugh! You are very funny G! I'm sorry. But yeah, the non-incentive of being enslaved two years is really very much stronger than the 'weak incentive of money'! Er, this really made no sense to my mind. Where is the 'patriotism or pride' in most males doing NS? I seriously doubt that NS is the way to build an effective defence force too, you know. The suspect 'willingness to die for their employers' as opposed to the instinct to flee at the first whiff of trouble?

And it was plain tragic when you said 'The army is the society'. What are we, the Spartans? Barbarians? The Huns?

Paying regulars more and letting those who don't want to serve go need not be bad. It need not be a full privatisation of the Army. But it need not be wholly shielded from market forces either. Basic economic theory is founded on choice. If people don't want to serve, they will come up with ten thousand different ways to escape (chaokeng, they call it). This aversion to service, especially for the many service/support side NSmen, could be lessened if they were simply paid more.

Furthermore, why is having a private army the same as hiring mercenaries? It may merely be that society values its soldiers, and therefore pays them more. I.e, society's vote-of-confidence takes the form of the dollar. Society rewarding soldiers for their 'patriotism' and their 'pride'. Society saying thank you. This is not suspect in any way. We are merely paying them for their services to society. And society doesn't want to pay its soldiers that much, it is merely their valuation of defence: perhaps they think that we're not going to get attacked any time soon (purely logical) or perhaps they think that it's not essential, that they'll just take flight as soon as any trouble appears (purely understandable).

I am too tired to carry on. My brain has just gone into overdrive screaming at the many naive (or not) refutations of reality.

Love (I am far too exhausted for hugs or kisses)


F:

3) power projection- we have 55000 professional soldiers and 189000 reserves(not NSF). the Singaporean army in total is about 300000. Yet tim Huxley points out that though we are sizeable, we have three weaknesses.

1)low morale- conscription breeds dissent

2)Suspectable quality of troops- to familiarise as you pointed out is nice and fast but being untested, the Singaporean army is only fierce on paper as we know it(perhaps thats all that is necessary anyway)

3)Officers are not familiar with the military- the problem as Huxley pointed out was not that Singapore had bad officers but officers were shifted around quickly or promoted too fast to know the bolts and nuts of the military. When a general retires at 42, how much ground experience does he really have?

The Military in Politics

i think its essential to point out as you have done that we are not indonesia or pakistan where the military sometimes dominates the political mainstream. however, the problem lies not with military participation in politics, but rather that ex-military men have a powerful voice in the civil service and the government. Military men are drilled with a different mindset, like it or not and that has its strengths and weaknesses. it is imporbable that they would suddenly turn around and chop at the hand that had fed them quite so well in the past.


Me:

> 2. Also, "for the record", most female soldiers (at
> least until they become dis-illusioned) and DXOs
> (glorified military administrators) are PES A / B. So
> women are physically weaker, but still combat-fit? So
> D's arguments that the physical fraility of
> females precludes them from serving NS is not very
> valid here.

There's a condition called "Poor Physique" that gets you downgraded - to PES B. Basically you have to be underweight/short to get this. So even the SACSALs could get by in most combat vocations (no one's asking them to be divers or commandos).


A:

I'm sure I will regret asking this, but what is a SACSAL?


C:

> Now I never said that women were physically frail. I only meant it
RELATIVELY to males. Read my reply to Wowbagger about comparative
advantage.

That's precisely my point. There may be a comparative advantage for some girls to serve NS given that some of them are as fit as guys. Is the average female weaker than a guy with back injuries, those who had their legs fractured while doing S.O.C? I find that very hard to believe.

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." - Bertrand Russell

***

I think Revenge of the Sith is the best of all 6 Star Wars movies. As a gripe I read went, they'd have done much better contracting the plot for the first 2 prequels to the guys who made KOTOR and KOTOR II, but the third one's good. The only niggling point is that Anakin's fall to the Dark Side wasn't brought out very well - he made the final decision too fast and too awkwardly.

Some people (conservatives from the National Review, naturally) were claiming that Revenge of the Sith was anti-Bush. I was previously dismissing such as the paranoid rantings of insecure right-wingers, but with the talk of democracy, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy", the putative peace and prosperity of the New Order ("I have brought peace, justice, freedom, and security to my new Empire"), the fawning obeisance of the Senate towards the Supreme Chancellor and a cut line ("There are times when we must all endure adjustments to the constitution in the name of security... I have no choice... this war must be won", it was hard not to sense allegorical elements.

Incidentally, this is the first movie I've seen that's so big that it needs *3* best boys - 2 normal ones and one for the rigging. But just what do best boys do anyway?

***

USP's stepping up their marketing efforts, launching a page aimed at prospective students.

There's even an interview with staff and students (Windows Media Player required):

"Our students need to have a profound sense of being humbled by this knowledge. To know that gaining knowledge, using knowledge, err, and their talents can make them a very powerful force for good, but at the same time they can be a source of great evil, so the humbling effect of knowledge is very important in the kind of teaching that I like to do in USP"

A very powerful force for good? A source of great evil? Sounds like we've just gained superpowers!

***

Others are roused against evangelism:

A: > And in withdrawing, the Source of Goodness will take all
> that is Good with Him, even the sun and the rain and the things we have come
> to take for granted as our "rights" - leaving us with, in a word, hell. By
> your own choice. But it need not be so.

This is to me one of the most alienating aspects of Christianity. I think there are many valuable elements in the Christian tradition, but the removal of all that is good to outside our particularised human existence is not one of them. I have always hated, in particular, not the notion that I could go to hell, or that others might, but that apparently it should be possible for me to find eternal bliss and perfect happiness while - for example - my family burns in everlasting torment. You can rationalise all you like about how the joy to be found in human relationships comes from God and as long as we still have God we have what really matters, or that it's not our place to feel for the sufferings of others because it's all part of God's greater plan for them. That sort of evasive sophistry completely gives the lie to xxx's claim that Christianity is a creed for here and for now. If people whom I love suffer, I'm not going to be sitting about in divine grace, I'm going to be foaming at the mouth and tearing the Pearly Gates down to get to them.

Robert Heinlein's "Job: A Comedy of Justice" deals with this very theme and is heartily recommended to anyone who enjoys... well, enjoys books.


B: > And I'll exercise my right of reply now, for perhaps the last time before
> the censors close in, to say what the Good News of Christianity really is.

Let's see. The destruction of the earth? The casting of nonbelievers into hell? If God existed, he'd be charigned to know that you so-called "believers" have turned him into a petty, attention seeking creature, seeking to be worshipped. You claim God shall throw a cosmic hissyfit, and condemn non-believers to hell because "I am so high and mighty, too bad if you believed in the wrong god in life."

> The Good News is that God watches over the world with loving care, sending
> the sun and rain on evil and good alike because of His undeserved grace, not
> willing that any should perish but desiring that all should be saved from
> their wickedness and its consequences. For He did intervene once in history
> to make that possible, by dying for us - even for a person like Gabriel.

He sends tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes and other "acts of God" as well, because of his undeserved grace. Survivors die from the fallout of diseases, such as malaria. He only died for us, if you want to be exact and quote the bible, but again, there you have it, going around in your little circular arguement.

Hope is an amazing thing when humans are in despair. How often do smiling evangelists come to people at the worst point in their lives, knowing, sooner or later, that person's life will get better?

"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised." - Dorothy Parker

***

I don't know why some evangelical Christians keep trying to convert people AGAIN and AGAIN, even when it's clear that no one is interested.

Even if I finally got around to actively sharing the good news with others, I would stop after one or two tries when it was clear that my efforts were unwelcome.

Maybe it's like MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) - the more people you convert, the higher your chances of going to heaven.


My response to the latest evangelistic tract on a mailing list I'm on:

I am disinclined to show how your [religiously-grounded moral] system is even more perilously flawed than one based on utilitarianism/the harm principle, having just viewed a 2 hour long paean to religious tolerance and harmony (because of the late hour, of course!)

Suffice to say that I too have good news to share.

The good news that there isn't a vengeful, petty, psychopathic divine being watching your every move.

The good news that innocent people do not get condemned to burn in hell for all eternity, suffering infinite punishment for a finite crime (if indeed it can be called a crime).

The good news that you do not have to spend your life trying to contact imaginary friends and preparing for the hereafter, so you can devote your attention to this one - which is all we have.

The good news that you do not have to be bound by archaic, ridiculous and self-contradictory dogma that's 2 millennia out of date.

Unfortunately, I cannot share the good news that certain people on this mailing list will henceforth stop trying to convert others for the umpteenth time, annoying the hell out of everyone.

***

Basking in the love:


Name: Tim

Message: Gosh you seriously suck. Man, you're ugly and surely, you're leading a miserably lonely life without the love of a single soul. Unless your blind parents are idiotic enough to love your. Damn you're spastic.

***

Gran hits burglar with garden gnome - "She yelled at the man, then picked up a gnome and hurled it at him, reports The Sun. It bounced off his head, leaving him lying dazed on the roof in Wadebridge, Cornwall. Jean dashed to fetch her rolling pin and a camera, and then took photos of the burglar as neighbours called the police."

Deputies report rampage of naked, shocking behavior - "An Inverness man was arrested Saturday after breaking into his neighbors' house and threatening them, shocking himself by sticking his fingers into a lamp socket, threatening a deputy with a metal rod, running naked through his yard and chewing through a cable in a patrol car, authorities said."

AOL Treats Fla. Emergency E-Mails As Spam - "Emergency managers in Indian River County, hard-hit by hurricanes last year, thought the best way to get out weather alerts was by e-mail - until they learned that AOL was tagging the messages as spam."

***

Questions to students who had accepted NUS (password required)

2. Why did you choose to study in NUS? (multiple responses allowed)

- NUS is exciting
- It is one of the top universities in the world


Hahahahaha.

"Only fools are positive." - Moe Howard

Random Playlist Song: Chopin - Etude Op 25 No 9 in G flat Major (Butterfly)

***

The Sordid Story of SMU

"The true story is that one day a bunch of MIW were sitting around in the Vice-Chancellor's place having a drink. And one of them lamented that his super-smart, ultra-perfect son had qualified for NUS engineering but wanted to go to NUS business instead. And NUS business cut-off point (another national secret) had surged upwards in recent years.

And the group of them chatted about this phenomenon of all these bright kids going into something as stupid Undergrad Business... instead of that holiest of holies ENGINEERING...

So they decided to that in order to make NUS B-School less attractive to Singaporeans, they would have to destroy its brand. So NUS would have to lose its business school...

The NTU Dean pointed out... that if NTU lost its business school.... then all of a sudden.. you would have a gazillion male nerdy engineer dudes living in an ulu part of the island with no women at all...

No women = no babies = no future peasants!!!

And that was when the whole plan fell apart, so SMU was set up."

***

Philip Yeo Sparks Surge in Sex Change Operations and Emigration

"“It’s true that we guys get whiny thanks to NS,” said Corporal (NSF) Choe Sai Kang, who is also contemplating an A*Star scholarship. “But that’s all you can do when you encounter stupidity and can’t do anything about it because if you do, you’ll kena DB. Anyway, if we’re whining about A*Star scholarship conditions even after doing NS, what does that say about A*Star except that they’re more condemned than the SAF? I guess that’s Singapore for you: they want us not only to face up to stupidity, they want us to like it too.”

Those who can’t bear changing their sex, have opted to change their nationality instead.

“After taking two years of shit for my country, not only is it not appreciated, I’m told they’d rather have foreigners who have never endured a single day for Singapore,” said Mr. Mohd Cabut bin Negara. “I wish I’d known earlier. If so, I’d have emigrated long ago so I can be the kind of person that Mr Yeo wants for Singapore.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for A*Star has said that the hoopla has only proven Mr. Yeo’s point that Singapore men are whiny, thin-skinned girly men who can’t take unpleasantness.

“Yeah, right,” said Corporal Choe. “I really accept that criticism from someone who threatens to sue obscure bloggers for defamation.”"

***

Mindjack - Piracy is Good?

"British satellite broadcaster SkyOne — part of NEWS Corp's BSkyB satellite broadcasting service — ran the premiere episode of the re-visioned 70s camp classic Battlestar Galactica... so three months would elapse between the airing of "33" in the UK, and its airing in the US. Or so it was thought...

The British aficionados of the series provided torrents for each episode within a few hours of each broadcast. Many fans in the US picked them up and watched them; so did many people in Australia.

While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for "word-of-mouth" to spread about Battlestar Galactica...

The pervasive culture of TV downloading leaves the producers of pre-produced television programs high and dry, receiving nothing of value for their work. But is this really true? The absolute, basic motivation of a TV producer is not money — though money is needed for production — but to gain and hold an audience's attention. TV producers want their programming to be watched as widely as possible — by everyone. That's what they care about, and that's all they care about, because, with viewers, everything else takes care of itself: audiences equal money."

***

magic missile () - video

Cop: Your friend says you shot him with an arrow

Guy: No, my friend opened a booby-trapped chest and a Magic Missile booby trap set by goblin sappers - that is what hit him

Cop 2: The booby trap, which was you

Guy: No, he was trying to show me that he could duck out of the way of an arrow - of an arrow and I had to show him that a longbow at close range with a Magic Missile, uh, enchantment on it - there's no way to duck out of the way in -

Cop: So you rolled a 18 and then what happened?

Guy: I rolled a 18. He failed his saving throw [Cop: Ah] and then the arrow got him between where the greave adjusts

Cop: Ah, well there's only the 3 points you can tell

Later...

Guy: I live in a world of cold steel, and dungeons, and mighty foes, and

Cop: Oh, I live in a world of dungeons too. The dungeon where I'm taking you is called the Reno County Jail... You gonna love that

Cop 2: There's a dragon there named Nick the Grip and he's been - uh

Even later...

Guy: I'm wearing Boots of Escaping! I'm wearing Boots of Escaping! *Guy gets shot by a taser* I will call down a mighty reckoning on you!

***

The Illusion of Racial Harmony? - "Upon hearing this, fellow conscript said that Malays ought to buck up and ‘prove themselves to the other races’. And he sincerely believed that it was the Malays fault. Most Singaporeans consider Malays to be lazy and that their relative poverty is their own fault. I used to think so too but at least I grew smarter and escaped from the government’s Chinese chauvinist rhetoric."

Three People Killed Over Role-Playing Game in Southeastern Brazil - "A 21-year-old man and his parents were killed after the man agreed to be murdered along with his family if he lost a murder-mystery role-playing game, local media reported Saturday"

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." - Thomas Jefferson

***

The depths the local media has sunk to in their extended A*Star/Phillip Yeo publicity exercise is depressing. They've really outdone themselves this time.

(More detailed analysis may be found on the specialist blog Singapore Ink. - kopi, tea and lager, which lovingly chronicles the latest circus)

At least in the 21st Century, they no longer have a monopoly on news production, analysis and dispersal, and outraged parties who have been misquoted, misrepresented or scandalized by the nadir that they've sunk to can set the record straight.

With a performance like this, it's no wonder people, especially the youth, are getting turned off and apathetic.

Luckily I don't keep up with it any more, and never had the intention of joining it (despite the suggestions of many).


Someone: hahaha i love the ST
they are the leaders in intellectual thought
they are the true postmodernist

they can offer rival interpretations to anything
how can we beat them
we can't

rival interpretations to what mrbrown said to what mrmiyagi said to what wows said

Me: they're good at getting something from nothing
maybe they did the USP writing module haha

Someone: what? they probably proposed the course :P


Meanwhile, a comment seen on Singapore Ink:

"Person A: i really wonder if yeo did his NS

Person B: that’s how he know it make people more infantileZ haha

Person A: it explains his unwhiny character
he sits on his bitch chair and complains to the press and his lawyers

Person B: good Right
if you gotz initiative, if you have motivationz, if you are proactive - it means you’re whiny

Person A: hahaha

Person B: you can call him names
just don’t criticise his work

Comment by Scared kenna Sued"


Young Republic:

"Oh yes, on Philip's comments today: Yes but no. One very good reason why Singaporean Male ASTAR scholars might seem more 'infantile' is precisely because national service is an infantilising experience. And he may be right and Singaporean guys should really start reflecting on whether they have become whining, useless losers.

Alternatively, it could also be argued that because of two years of serving for an ungrateful organisation all out to exploit them, they have seen first hand why it might not be such a good idea to just listen to everything Philip says.

It could also be that getting thrust into truly alien environments, as opposed to their fellow elitist foreign scholar/female counterparts, has opened their eyes to opportunities that they had not known existed. ( Such as being inter-dealer brokers, whom rumour has it make hundreds of thousands of dollars per annum, if not millions, and are actually encouraged to go drinking and whoring nightly. But 'tis just a rumour....).

Or it could be that Philip just doesn't like the guys simply because we have more balls to actually disagree with him. To put it in another way, perhaps it could be argued that he likes the foreign-born scholars and the girls because they are more subservient and docile. And that to question his wisdom is most unwise- the role of the ASTAR bonded researcher is to just shut up and do whatever research is directed for them, never mind that it may not be where their passion truly lies or that they might have ethical doubts about the sort of work they are doing. All for the good of the economy and the security of this Republic.

One more thing. The following idea, ( somewhat tongue-in-cheek but you never know....) came about during breakfast chats with my family. Perhaps ASTAR should consider, as a real way to get real talent into Singapore, to start paying genuine top dollar for the top science graduate students from MIT, Caltech and so on. I mean, funding all these cheap slaves from poor Asian countries as well as Singaporeans whose parents don't earn megabucks, even if you are paying a million a piece for each of them, is not really going to bring about the super results that you want- the fact that they are all so willing to obey what you say, even when you know it's hot air, says quite a lot about their standard of imagination, or rather, the lack thereof. At most, they can be Master Test Tube Washers, churning out huge quantities of research no doubt, but alas, research that produces few genuine breakthroughs that we can keep as trump cards for Singapore.

Therefore why not just buy as many grad students as you can from all the prestigious universities? Money should not be an object; we can always grossly inflate the budget for hiring top talent, the savings for this of course coming from cutting back on frivolous spending like utility subsidies for the destitute or something. Pump extra incentives for coming here. Yes, doing even things like strapping yourselves to office chairs and sliding down long, long, long corridors is probably going to be much more frowned upon here than in Massachusetts. And of course there's other niggling things like, the lack of freedom of speech. But so what? You're coming to a nation that adores expatriates of all colour, even if those Failed-In-London-Try-Hong-Kong, or Perth-Impossible-Go- Singapore types.

Someone please rebutt the above and tell me what I've said is not true. I'm depressed by the above scenarios myself."

***

I set out to ascertain the veracity of the oft-heard comment that Malaysian hawker food tastes better than Singaporean hawker food. And so I put forward this premise to my panel of correspondents (I love all of you, really), and got some interesting theories. My usual methods of gathering information can be divided into 4 categories: research, observation, interviews and contributions. Not having been to Ma-laysia for many years, I had to rely on the views of my correspondents and my own speculations. Perhaps I shall be able to make my own observations if/when I go to Penang next month.

First we examined whether this premise was sound. A simple majority of respondents disagreed with the proposition, and a two-thirds supermajority (albeit from a smaller sample) thought that Singapore had better restaurants. Interestingly, no one thought that Singapore had better food (ie They all thought Singapore's offerings were either as good or lousier than Malaysia's).

Of course, patriotic Malaysians would dispute this claim. nw.t blithely claimed, for example, that: "i've known many singaporeans who feel that malaysian hawker food is way better strangely enough, most of these singaporeans are well travelled individuals who have been up and down regularly, as opposed to your cossetted schoolmates who have been up to KL once or twice in their lives". Curiously, those who championed Malaysian food all tended to be passionate in the extreme about it.

On the other hand, my sister has been spending a few weeks in Kuala Lumput, and she says that Malaysian hawker food is just different - not better, and that Singapore has more variety (perhaps the Malaysians gain advantages from specialisation). And that Malaysian servings are small.

First, the statistical aspects of this problem must be examined.

I suspect that the deified view of Malaysian hawker food may be due to selection bias. Passionate defenders of Malaysian food likely have their favourite food outlets, which they then compare with those in ordinary Singapore neigbourhoods. As for the matter of comparing the best outlets that each nation has to offer, I do not have enough data and so am unable to do an analysis. Perhaps one of the Singaporean variety food shows can do a special feature on this.

Another reason for the better perception of Malaysian food is the same reason why PRCs seem so much smarter than Singaporeans. Since the population of China is so much bigger than that of Singapore, the most mathematically able (say) 1% of Singaporeans is numerically equal to the top 0.003% of PRCs. It is thus no surprise that PRCs seem so much smarter. Malaysia has a bigger Chinese population than Singapore, so it would not be surprising if they had better hawkers. Some might point out that Malaysia is a large country, yet the geographical distribution of the Chinese population in Malaysia is not uniform - KL and Penang, for example, are majority Chinese, and they tend to be concentrated in the urban areas.

The above 2 reasons also account for why Singaporean men think that Singaporean women are uglier than Japanese and Taiwanese women - not only are there more of the latter, the men's impressions of foreign women are formed from watching Japanese and Taiwanese AV.

Another reason might be that Singaporean and Malaysian hawker food is qualitatively different. Some people might prefer Malaysian-style Hokkien Mee or Char Kway Teow to the Singaporean variant. So we're not actually comparing the same thing here.

I think my final theory might account for most of the difference: since people agree that Singapore has better restaurants, maybe the good cooks in Singapore become restaurant chefs, while those in Malaysia stay as hawkers. And since restaurant food is more expensive than hawker food, the poor Malaysian country bumpkins (heh) don't get to savour the "Taste of Singapore".

And now, I shall speculate about why Malaysian hawker food might taste better.

There is a great deal less regulation in Malaysian. Hawkers thus have freer reign in doing their thing, the most obvious aspect of which is lower hygiene standards. One may observe the same phenomenon in Singapore - the good stalls tend to get "C"s and "D"s hygiene ratings. It is also no surprise that the food in Singaporean foodcourts tends to be mediocre, standardised and franchised as it is (lowering the perception of Singaporean food further). Also, dirtier food is more authentic, so it tastes better. However, one needs a strong stomach in order not to get sick, and many of my respondents complained about how Malaysian food made them sick. So it depends on how willing one is to get sick, I suppose.

There is also the ambience factor. Gritty atmospheres tend to add to the hawker food experience - witness how people flocked to Glutton's Square opposite Centrepoint when they re-opened it a few months ago.

Other theories: Malaysian hawkers use more MSG and oil, being less health-conscious; ingredients are cheaper so they put more of them; Singaporean hawkers cook with less love and are more bo chap when they cook; the Chinese in Malaysia feel beleaguered because they are a dwindling minority: to them cooking is an expression of their cultural identity and ethnic pride so they put more effort into it

The most exotic theory I heard went something like this: Malaysian food has more "wok hei" (the fire of the wok) since their woks are more seasoned, "like how claypots get better the older they are". This is because:

"1.) malaysian hawkers are poorer leading to a slower wok replacement rate
2.) they may not be older but still more seasoned cos malaysian hawkers work longer hours
3.) the wok may be more seasoned cos the fire used is hotter"

Erm. Right.

Other comments:

"one thing's for sure..malaysia very hard to find decent hainanese chicken rice
something to do with the rice - too small"

"i find singapore does clear/soupy stuff better in general - like porridge or teochoew muay
but malaysia does better with more flavoursome/deep fried stuff

in any event, i don't deny that singapore does some things better, but with a panoply of different styles and varieties, it's hard to make an objective comparison
but certainly, the geographical disparities that KMalaysia offers lends itself to a wider variety of styles"


As always, I welcome more views on this issue from respondents.

A response from nw.t can be read below this post.

***

Lego Harpsichord - "With the exception of the wire strings, this instrument is entirely constructed out of LEGO parts--the keyboard, jacks, jack rack, jack rail, plectra, soundboard, bridge, hitch pins, tuning pins, wrestplank, nut, case, legs, lid, lid stick, and music stand are all built out of interlocking ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) plastic bricks and related pieces."

Teenage whore. - http://teen4sale.blogspot.com/ - Someone sent me this. I don't know if it's real.

Damn you and your culinary lies, Gabriel (which have so irked me that I have had to waste valuable sleep time writing this, but unfortunately I exist only in service to Truth.)

a) Singaporean restaurant food excels only when it comes to Japanese and other European cuisines. Top-notch Chinese restaurants in Malaysia are comparable if not better than Malaysian ones. (see more below).

b) I will admit there are quite a few lousy stalls around, but I refuse to believe that a few weeks of properly meandering around the KL area will lead an objective observer to show that there is less diversity of offering ,although it is, in fairness, far more spread out geographically, so a novice wanderer among the KL culinary byways may go astray. NO ONE I know who has spent more than a week in KL outside of their hotel restaurant still thinks KL has less variety especially when you consider that the indian and malay coffeeshops are far more prolific - for instance, you can't get good banana leaf rice outside of Apollo or indeed the Little India area, although if someone is willing to correct me I would greatly appreciate it - and offer more exotic delights such as the Ramli Camel Burger (TM). I can think of at least six "standard" Malaysian hawker dishes I can't find easily reproduced in Singapore (to be fair, not non-existent though, just difficult to dig up); I can only think of two "standard" Singaporean ones (mee pok and Singaporean style hay mee) which cannot be simply found in KL.

(to someone else reading this now: Katong laksa is a reigonal specialty of sorts (insofar as Singapore is capable of regional specialties) - it's not a "standard" Singaporean hawker dish. Which is why I didn't mention Penang hay mee or Kajang satay or Kelantanese curry)

(to yet someone else: alright, I agree you can't find roti john or the thomson crispy pratas readily reproduced in KL either - although I refuse to call the thomson crispy pratas standard hawker fare)

(man, food brings out passionate feelings - to another of my gadfly critics: YA KUN KAYA TOAST IS NOT HAWKER FOOD! DO YOU SEE ME FLOGGING IPOH WHITE COFFEE HERE?)

c) I resent being labelled as a patriotic Malaysian by implication, and I demand you rephrase that paragraph - as you know I have invested a lot of intellectual credibility in rejecting nationalism/patriotism of any kind so for you to impute such motives to me is defamatory. I speak purely out of objective and prolonged exposure to both Singaporean and Malaysian culinary environments - again, something many of your correspondents lack.

d) Singaporean servings are smaller???? Find me a place in Singapore wehre the standard 4 SGD bowl of laksa is larger than the average RM3.50 bowl of Penang hay mee in KL??? Impossible. [Gabriel: Hello. S$4 is for a bowl in an air con place. And RM3.50 is about a third of S$4. Like this I should compare a S$6 bowl of laksa with your stupid RM3.50 bowl.] I admit chicken rice portions can be small at times; ditto for wan tan mee. But not for noodle or other heavier foodstuffs - with the notable exception of char kuay teow (KL does it way better, but they do tend to be parsimonious for some reason - costs of cockles maybe? -although I'm not sure the larger quantity of floppy, tasteless, sickly sweet kuay teow that constitues the average Singaporean offering of char kuay teow is a plus point) [Gabriel: That depends on if you like sweet sauce. I do. And my sister's Malaysian friend agrees that Malaysian portions are smaller.]

(the above observation excludes shopping center and commercial food courts - those are almost uniformly sub-par in both quantity and quality both in Singapore or in Malaysia)

e) At least Malaysian hawkers don't put ketchup in won ton mee!! [Gabriel: I like ketchup. What's wrong with ketchup?]

f) The numerical/statistical argument is irrelevant when we are talking about relative standards of quality. There are, no doubt, numerically more good Ampang yong tau foo places in KL than there are in Singapore. But that's a facetious argument which serves only to obfuscate and befuddle the hoi polloi - does it matter if there are 10,000 ampang yong tau foo stalls relative to the 100 in Singapore? (no there aren't 10,000 stalls, in case some people are too literal minded). I feel confident that the quality distribution of said 10,000 AYTF stalls will still occupy a larger percentile of the sample than vis-a-vis the 100 Singaporean ones.

Okay, it's not quite normally distributed - and there are specializations, which is why I will admit there are more dry mee pok stalls or teochoew muay (the soup-over-rice with fish slices kind of porridge, not the brothy type with peanuts and Chinese pickles) in terms of quality and quantity in Singapore.

I could also do a lot of dissection into the cultural bias of your sample, but let's not go there.

g) Singapore's better restaurants provide better Continental and Japanese cuisine. As I said earlier, for "ta chao" (big fry) or even Lei Garden / Overseas / anything by the Crystal Jade (the expensive Crystal Jade, not the noodle houses) or Tung Lok cartel-style fine Chinese dining, Malaysian restaurants not only hold their own or are superior, but are measurably cheaper PPP-adjusted dollar for dollar (I'm not talking about exchange rate differentials here).

(the food fight goes on - to Chris: I don't consider dim sum local fare - but I admit I am ambivalent about whether Malaysian or Singaporean restaurants are better, because they are surprisingly bloody different in implementation, outside of the sine qua non offerings (har kao, siew mai, char siew pao, carrot cake, chee cheong fun))

Arguably there are better Thai restaurants (i have to admit, arroy thai and renn thai are superlative), but not better upscale Indonesian ones (other than sanur and house of sundanese
food, there are at least 4 superior ones in KL I can think of - although you wil no doubt pull out the demographics argument again). Honestly, I fail to see how the "Taste of Singapore" is denied to Malaysians - the only thing one misses out

So tell me how does having more al dente pasta or black truffles smorgasbords or Wagyu steaks communicate the "Taste of Singapore" to your own affluent population?

I would also point out that "the good cooks in Singapore" are largely foreign imported - most good local homegrown talent either stay with their hawker stalls or they go the disgusting franchise path - a horrible phenomenon that I am sadly starting to see in KL - . Those that have opened up proper restaurants (again, outside of the cartels mentioned above) still do not measure up, in my honest opinion, to their counterparts in Malaysia.

The argument is about hawker/local food, not foreign cuisine , to which again I will freely concede that Singaporean expat chefs can do far better.

h) As for Malaysian food upsetting the fragile digestive systems of your sensitive correspondents - well, what can I say. One needs repeated and prolonged acclimitisation to enjoy the tastes while suffering none of the consequences:) KL has no wussy nanny-State-fiat-imposed "Use less oil" or "Ask for vegetables" campaign.

I might also point out I have concentrated on KL, and have not even begun including Penang or Ipoh. Johor doesn't count because it is, quote (sic): "spoil market by all the Singaporeans.", and I don't know enough about Kota Baru or Negri Sembilan.

[Gabriel: Not having either the time or desire to spend weeks in Ma-laysia on culinary adventures, I shall have to defer to other opinions and seek the input of other connoisseurs of Malaysian hawker food on the relative merits of the two countries' food.]

"I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, "I wanna grow up and be a critic."" - Richard Pryor

Random Playlist Song: Kermit and Miss Piggy - S.Y.F.F.I.T.F.

Miss Piggy: Oh Kermie, it's alright. You don't have to introduce me. Because, if you don't, I can always just S.Y.F.F.I.T.F

Kermit the Frog: You can always just S.Y.F.F.I.T.F?

Miss Piggy: Mmm hmm. Stuff Your Froggy Face Into The Floor!

***

You scored as Lord Zedd. Lord Zedd 100% Master Vile 92% Goldar 83% Rito Repulsa 75% Ivan Ooze 75% Scorpina 75% Finster 67% Rita Repulsa 67% Squatt 58% Divatox 33% King Mondo 25% Queen Machina 25% Prince Sprocket 25% Baboo 8% Which Power Rangers Villain Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

***

Gah. The crapster extended his stay in Shanghai till the 19th, so I've no one to go around making snide remarks with.

***

Seen in a comments thread on Singapore Ink: "As agagooga frequently says but never poses an answer to - “what’s illegal may not be wrong, and what’s right may not be legal”"

So how just should I pose an answer to this question? :) I will attempt to do so nonetheless.

Dumb Laws has a listing of silly laws from around the world. Breaking these laws may not be wrong, but it is nonetheless illegal.

As for something that is legal but not right, in Singapore a husband may rape his wife, yet not be liable for prosecution for rape under Singapore law.

***

Misogyny on TV - Feminazi Propaganda

"Portrayals of amazon freaks denigrate and pervert females, attack feminine identity and incite in men a lust for sexual violence. These shows are extremely obscene, many are pornographic, they display dominatrix whores who incite lusts for sexual violence, and are an attack on women, the family and civilization.

"Turn on your television set and take a look. Female tough-guys are on half the channels. Macho girls are stomping, kicking and punching a politically correct path through our culture, implanting new and false images into the public psyche. The method of presentation is simple. A man in a woman's body is seen to act like a man and look like a woman. The image itself serves to confuse both men and women -- instantly deconstructing notions of human gender developed by trial and error over many centuries. A corrupt new role model now appears, with tremendous psychological energy behind it: a vast sisterhood of lady fighter pilots, hand-to-hand combatants, detectives, FBI agents and firemen appear on the screen. Since seeing is believing, millions of human beings are growing up with bizarre self-misconceptions planted firmly between their ears. On the flip side, depicted with sly mockery, is the pregnant husband, the sobbing he-man and the non-homosexual wimp." - J.R. Nyquist

Mighty Morphan (sic) Power Rangers (90s) (FOX) - Boys and girls morph into androgynous creatures to encourage violence between boys and girls in real life. This is unquestionably the most obvious androgynous propaganda show that has even been on television. Death to the makers and supporters of this anti-human, immoral, child abusing hell.
A teen girl on jeopardy said when she was younger she was forced (forced was her word) to watch Power Rangers and because of it took up karate and became a black belt -- the crowd cheered.
The death of at least one girl has been attributed to the show. Several years ago when the Power Rangers were popular I heard on TV about a gang of pre-teen boys in England who beat a little girl to death and later claimed they were just playing Power Rangers and they got carried away.
The makers of social poison like this should be sued for intentionally marketing violence to children, especially when there is a link that demonstrates that the show encouraged violence.
Phil Phillips who wrote "The Truth about Power Rangers" said: "This is the worst 30 minute kids program I have reviewed in over 11 years. Power Rangers is shot on cheap sets, jampacked with violence, acid rock music, martial arts, sexual immuendos the occult, and a piffing moral at the end of each program to add to its politically correct reputation."

Two of a Kind (Warner Brothers) starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
They displayed what may be the most obscene and immoral thing that is ever appeared on television, a little boy and girl fighting against each other in a karate match. Such obscenity even between grown men and women should not be shown on the public airwaves, to show this inhuman obscenity is worse than showing child pornography on television. Every single person who made this child exploitation are child abusers who should be a arrested and imprisoned for life. Anybody who participates in the making of this is not fit to walk around in a society of civilized human beings. One of the Olsen girls was in the staged fight and afterward told the other one who just came there to meet boys, "this is not a singles bar, no guy's even gonna look at you until you master karate." I would like to kill the evil bastards who put those words in her mouth. The makers of the film went beyond free speech to actually using children in physical obscene violence between the sexes, they should be arrested for this inhuman child abuse.

Mulan - The most evil "cartoon" ever made. A hateful attack on girlhood, a perversion of female identity. An attempt to encourage girls to be violent."

What are these people smoking?!

***

Exam boost for pupils if pet dies - "GCSE and A-level pupils in England are given 5% more if a parent dies close to exam day or 4% for a distant relative. They get 2% more if a pet dies or 1% if they get a headache. Critics say the system panders to an "excuse for everything" attitude."

[On the word 'caul'] "If I saw a term like 'amniotic sac' in an FF book I'd expect it to be in capitals and with Skill and Stamina scores attached"

***

Search referrals:

"vaginas" AND "eggs" AND "vietnamese" AND prostitutes AND magazine AND "vietnam war"

halal girl pictures - As long as you have impure thoughts, any pictures, no matter how innocent-seeming, will be haram

i made sex with my babbi

'evidence of people coming up out of tomes after jesus died on cross' - If people can come out of tombs, I don't see how they can't come out of books.

Malay guy cock picture - This inspired a post on Singapore Army Stories - Days Were "Malay guy cock picture"

smurfs secret satanic meaning gargamel

tudung upskirt - One might as well ask for 'trousers downblouse'

Fabled gamebook lands free download - Scans of books 1, 3, 4 and 6 available on this Yahoo Group.

led zeppelin stairway to heaven menstruation

deontologist views about use of landmines

how fast does the Astro Megaship go

"duck queen" makes tea out of people magic mirror

kotor fanfiction lemon - It exists?!

how girls masterbate cross legged - Maybe it involves Burmese bells.

"steven lim" NUS girl sex - I thought he only goes for 16 year olds.

Singnet slow p2p speed problem 2005

Recorded porn Film of Singapore Airlines steward - Not a stewardess? No one likes the stewards' plain blue jackets and bowties!

tan kuan liang sperm sauce

bastila nude patch for KOTOR
Bastila Shan sex

"no pork no lard" restaurants - No culinary principles either.

"muslim men" +urinal +"paper towel"

power ranger stoner

nus arts girls sex

help me unclog a slop sink

unsubscription pioneer - I'm the top Yahoo! result for this! I wonder if they've noticed their circulation going down.

phallic objects to masterbate with - Some people have no imagination.

all the wwe divas that accepted jesus christ as their savior

singapore girls mini skirt cosplay - That would be normal dress, not cosplay

NW.T's government

singnet throttle solved - Fat hope. Go to SCV! Though I suspect IRC speeds are capped

THE BEST WAY TO MASTERBATE MYSELF WITH NO DILDO OR VIBRATOR ONLY HOUSE HOLD ITEMS IM A GIRL WHO WANT TO MASTERBATE BY HERSELF - Try doing it cross-legged.

japanese av aversions to anal

what the hell is asianprince

mushrooms men's nude

rebonding reliable singapore - What could happen? Your hair falling out?

Has Emma Watson ever kissed Daniel Radcliffe

"women with very small breasts"

nus horny singapore

csm "learning driving"

pictures of classic scones with clotted cream - Mmm.

singapore cute medics

SC1101E chio bu

"fat people always lie" + "knights of the old republic" - I should transcribe some KOTOR II quotes also.

hair rebonding batam holiday - Maybe it's more reliable than in Singapore.

RGS Young Girls' Alumni Singapore

jedi academy decapitate patch

acjc girls in sports bra pics

speculum vagina cockroaches

rgs prefects stockings

price singapore "sar-21" - According to the picture at http://www.uzitalk.com/reference/shoots/knobcreek2004/sar21.jpg, it costs $2495 for one unit with a 30 round magazine.

convince girlfriend naked pictures

Ding Dong Song Gunther parody - How does one parody something that looks like a parody?

toh sucks ri choir

smurfs scythians - Come to think of it, their hats do look like Scythian Caps.

Women screwing powertools while touching Prince Charles blouse

strong girls lifting guys overhead

porn rui en

halal "Hula Hoops"

frog in pussy insertion crazy movie bestiality

pictures of hidden spy cam in singapore's girls toilet - If it's a hidden cam, you wouldn't be able to see it, would you?

Unwholesome Practises in Nigeria

acjc stripped - I have a video of someone being stripped to his underwear in the school field somewhere. Though that's not the worst I hear happens.

lee kuan yew choir

is it compulsory for students in Singapore to donate blood

emma watson's chinese astrology

Convent girl stereotypes in singapore

korans authenticity guinness book

stolen sggirls homemade movies

RGS and SCGS stereotypes

stories of exposing your cock in supermarkets

sally erana martin naked

"The creationists have this creator who is evil, who is small-minded, who is malevolent, and who is not very bright and can't even get his science right. Creationists have made their creator in their own image, in my view." - Ian Plimer

Random Playlist Song: Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances 4 - Song Of The Mountain Horn

There's only so much even Bartok can do to ruin a folk tune.

***

I fear that when I return from New York there will be no more jobs left, so I will have to resort to sweeping the streets.

***

Someone: anyway, i think the fact that fairy tales ruin girls may be largely due to bowdlerization and Disneyfication... ever since I was a kid I was already wondering why the Disney versions avoided all the sad endings...when in fact it was the sad endings I like...I was a really morbid kid...I used my stuffed toys to hold candlelight vigils for the Little Match Girl...

Said person was also surprised that I'd read Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince", "The Birthday of the Infanta" and "The Nightingale and the Rose" (though I didn't realise it was Wilde who wrote them, or recognise the titles either, it having been a long time since I'd read them).

Just because I don't look for meaning where none exists doesn't mean I don't or can't enjoy literary works!


Someone else: i love the quiz

Me: which one?
there're so many

Someone else: er
the moral thingie

Me: cheh
I thought it was the "what brand of sanitary pad are you"

Someone else: lol got that one meh? where where? i wanna take!

Me: haha
don't have
but there's a tampon one


You're quite the popular one aren't ya? You're
o.b.! INDEED.

<<What Brand of Tampon Are You?{w/ pics}>>
brought to you by Quizilla

***

Enche Marketing Sdn Bhd

"In line with our expansion to foreign countries, we seek for individuals who are very original, innovative, resourceful in finding solutions, and able to work creatively within the areas that they are assigned to:

Blogger
(Selangor - Shah Alam)

Requirements:

We are on the hunt for someone to blog about current affairs and sensational issues, whether in relation to politics, social issues, economic affairs etc. You must have at least 6 months experience blogging. You must have IT or technology interest, know-how and experience with fantastic research capabilities and ability to source for issues to blog about."

***

More cryptic messages:


Sender's email: ***@***.***

Subject: Not for you..

Message: One screwed up fool
finds many friends.
seeks to impress those
already with the bends.


Huh?!

***

mollymeek: An Educational Entry

"Molly had previously praised the idea of using The Straits Times for educational purposes. Indeed, Molly learns a lot from the paper and Molly believes that she should not be as selfish as to keep her knowledge to herself.

Not long ago, Molly was appealing to the CNA to use simpler English and Molly is glad that the ST’s Chua Mui Hoong is setting a good example for the CNA to follow (refer to the article, “Want political change? Go beyond words”), especially with the Speak Good English Campaign around...

What is a reasonable position? Look at Chua’s well-crafted remark: “We remain in our cosy corners—in the media, in academia, in the arts—and grumble.” Notice the hint that academics “grumble”—see how a boring word like “discourse” is avoided. More importantly, notice the term “cosy corners.” The word “corners” effectively conveys the meaning of the word “marginalization” (for Molly knows that corners occur only at the margins) without taking up the radical and unreasonable connotation the word “marginalization” has. The word “cosy” is equally well chosen and very insightful at the same time. There are radical people who claim that people who grumble in the media or in the arts often do so in fear. There are also people who claim that local artists are often too poor and lack funding. However, the word “cosy” debunks these radical ideas. Hence, the statement is reasonable.

Students, when you begin writing with the finesse and subtlety of Chua, you will get a distinction for this course.

Remember: it is important to be reasonable because we live in a conservative society."

Heh heh. I almost miss reading the ST.

***

Public Service Announcement from Charlotte:

"Anyone remember the little Indian woman at the corner traffic light at Mandrin Hotel, opposite Hereen? The one which comes up to you and tries to sell you little packets of tissue paper so that she can pay for her cancer operation? Yeps. Her.

Charlotte noticed her at Bukit Merah Central today, at the staircase behind Brinda's (we provide greased Indian cuisine!). Looks like the Little Tissue Paper Woman was a regular at that area. In about an hour, she had gone through about half a pack of cigarettes. Now you know where the money she earns from selling those tissue paper goes to. To fund the cancer operation which she will sooner, or later, have to take, whether or not she has cancer now."

***

"I do think that it's so much better to be a guy than a gal, at least when it comes to shopping for working attire.

It's just so easy for guys, just a standard shirt and pants. That's it. Ok, and probably a need to ensure that the colours don't clash.

For ladies, we've to decide whether we want to wear skirt, pants or dress. As for the top, should it be just a simple top, a blouse, or a shirt. Then, we have to decide if we need to throw in a blazers or a cardigan to look smarter. After that, we have to make sure that the top and the bottom matches, and whether we need to throw in an accessory here and a belt there. Next, it will be the shoes. How high the heels should be, should the shoes be platform shoes or court shoes etc."

Pity.

***

Dance, White Boy, Dance - "Just about everyday... I walk into this room and catch my roommate dancing to some retarded song. So I thought I'd try to catch him on camera... If you get to see it, it's gonna be hilarious."
I am informed that the songs he dances to are "everybody dance now by c&c music factory" and "in da club by 50 cent"

First Annual National Brain Conference - Does the College Experience Damage Your Brain? - "poor diet, binge drinking, sleep deprivation, and substance abuse are facts of life at nearly all of America’s colleges and universities. Recent brain research documents how the college experience can take a terrible toll on a student’s brain—and what can be done to reverse this damage and develop the total potential of the brain."
Ah, thankfully we are immune from such Western Decadence in the Premier Institution of Social Engineering!

"[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered." - Al Capp

Random Playlist Song: Psychic Lover - Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger

***



"A brassiere of elemental summoning. Yes, that's real blue flames, the sort you get from complete combustion on a bunsen burner."

(from Patch)

***

There's finally a YourSay focus group I can go for (all individuals aged 18-40) and it has to be when I'm in the States. Gah.

***

Moralistic objections to evolution

"Evolution is a hugely controversial theory in some circles. In part this is because it seems to go against certain interpretations of some religious doctrines. However, people also object to the Theory of Evolution or find it distasteful because of the implications they feel it has for morality. There are 5 objections that are most often heard: If humans evolved from animals, and aren’t radically different from them qualitatively, why do we need morality? If selfishness is good for you, as evolution seems to imply, why should we be altruistic towards others? If the concept of memes, which follows from evolution, proposes that morality too, evolves, does that not cheapen morality? Since evolution is based on the theory of the survival of the fittest, why should we help those who lose out? And finally, doesn’t accepting evolution also endorse Social Darwinism? In reality, these concerns are misplaced and arise either from a misunderstanding of evolution or an idealisation of morality...

If humans were descended from animals and aren’t significantly qualitatively different from them, why then do we need morals? After all, animals lack knowledge of what is right and wrong - if we aren’t very different from them, why should we behave morally? That animals do not have complex moral systems is not in doubt, but then they do not have complex culture or brains as well, so it would be hard for complex morals to take root or persist. However, simple rules analogous to morals are observable in our primate relatives, especially in chimpanzees, the closest living relatives of humans. When chimpanzees are aware that they are related to each other, they do not mate – this is a chimpanzee version of the incest taboo in humans.

Similar rules of right and wrong can be found in other primates. Dominant macaque monkeys were found to have some respect for the property rights of subordinate ones, and Rhesus monkeys on Gayo Santiago who did not alert the rest of their troupe to the discovery of food stashes were attacked by other members of the troupe. Of course, many counter examples to these could be found, but then the same applies in human cultures – most morals are not universal, and vary from society to society and time period to time period. It might also be asked if these animals really are following notions of right and wrong; could they just be following their natural instincts? We cannot peer into animal minds to find the true answer, but then the same question might be asked of humans: from whence comes our morality? Is our sense of what is right and what is wrong just an instinct, like in animals? Whatever the answer might be, it is clear that one cannot blandly state that animals are amoral while humans have morals."

***

Questions & Answers: From whence

"From Marty Robinson: “Last week you quoted Sir Christopher Wren as referring to ‘The Ailes, from whence arise Bows or Flying Buttresses to the Walls of the Navis.’ I’m sorry to learn that Sir Christopher used the redundancy from whence.”

This is another of those grammatical shibboleths, like avoiding a plural verb with none or not splitting one’s infinitives, that are open to linguistic debate, to put it mildly. The argument against this form is that whence already includes the idea of coming from some place, so that including from makes it tautological...

And even a brief look at historical sources shows that from whence has been common since the thirteenth century. It has been used by Shakespeare, Defoe (in the opening of Robinson Crusoe: “He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York; from whence he had married my mother”), Smollett, Dickens (in A Christmas Carol: “He began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine”), Dryden, Gibbon, Twain (in Innocents Abroad: “He traveled all around, till at last he came to the place from whence he started”), and Trollope, and it appears 27 times in the King James Bible (including Psalm 121: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help”).

Though Dr Johnson objected to it in his Dictionary of 1755, calling it “A vicious mode of speech” (he meant it was reprehensible, not depraved or savage), most objections to it are no earlier than the twentieth century. One reason may be that its critics are unaware of its long pedigree."

***

Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics - "International surveys reveal wide differences between the views held in different countries concerning the causes of wealth or poverty and the extent to which people are responsible for their own fate. At the same time, social ethnographies and experiments by psychologists demonstrate individuals' recurrent struggle with cognitive dissonance as they seek to maintain, and pass on to their children, a view of the world where effort ultimately pays off and everyone gets their just deserts. This paper offers a model that helps explain: i) why most people feel such a need to believe in a "just world"; ii) why this need, and therefore the prevalence of the belief, varies considerably across countries; iii) the implications of this phenomenon for international differences in political ideology, levels of redistribution, labor supply, aggregate income, and popular perceptions of the poor. The model shows in particular how complementarities arise endogenously between individuals' desired beliefs or ideological choices, resulting in two equilibria. A first, "American" equilibrium is characterized by a high prevalence of just-world beliefs among the population and relatively laissez-faire policies. The other, "European" equilibrium is characterized by more pessimism about the role of effort in economic outcomes and a more extensive welfare state. More generally, the paper develops a theory of collective beliefs and motivated cognitions, including those concerning "money" (consumption) and happiness, as well as religion."
Apparently this can be downloaded free of charge by people with IPs from 'Developing Nations'. So Singapore is considered a 'Developing Nation', it seems :)

Altruistic Punishment May Explain Political Behavior - "A new UC Davis study about the origin of cooperation may shed light on why nations punish other countries for human rights violations or why people sanction those who do not vote. Political scientist James Fowler has created a mathematical model of human behavior that suggests that "moralists" who voluntarily pay a cost to punish "misbehavers" can come to dominate a population and ensure cooperation among its members."

The Right's Bitter Pill - "The surreal situation then, at the 40th anniversary of the Griswold decision, is that a potent force in American politics wishes to deny women basic contraception. Such egregious policies give the embattled reproductive freedom movement an excellent political opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of the contemporary anti-abortion movement. As is becoming clearer and clearer, the reproductive freedom movement—while believing in legal abortion—works to prevent unwanted pregnancy. The anti-abortion movement—while opposing abortion—promotes anti-contraceptive policies that virtually assure there will be more unwanted pregnancies and therefore, more abortions."

SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator - "SCIgen is a program that generates random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It uses a hand-written context-free grammar to form all elements of the papers. Our aim here is to maximize amusement, rather than coherence. One useful purpose for such a program is to auto-generate submissions to conferences that you suspect might have very low submission standards. A prime example, which you may recognize from spam in your inbox, is SCI/IIIS and its dozens of co-located conferences (check out the very broad conference description on the WMSCI 2005 website). Using SCIgen to generate submissions for conferences like this gives us pleasure to no end. In fact, one of our papers was accepted to SCI 2005! See Examples for more details."

Fairy tales may end in horror - "Young girls who enjoy classic romantic fairy tales like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast are at greater risk of becoming victims of violent relationships in later life, a British researcher says. A study of both parents of primary school children and women who have been involved in domestic abuse claims than those who grew up reading fairy tales are likely to be more submissive as adults."

God names next 'Chosen People'; It's Jews Again. 'Oh shit,' say Jews - ""According to the Bible, God promised to bless Abraham and those who came after him," said Contreau. "Who knows, maybe that sounded good at the time, or maybe 'blessed' meant something different back then, like 'Short periods of prosperity interrupted by insufferable friggin' chaos.' Whatever, I think it's safe to say that people didn't know what they were agreeing to."... In Jerusalem, Jewish leaders said they will propose an amendment to God's Law prohibiting a people from having to serve more than two consecutive terms. "Hopefully, G-d will hear our prayer," said Meyerson. "No, wait, that's what got us into this.""

Misfortune Cookie: Philip Yeo is a fucking lanjiao - "Hey, don't blame me for the title of this post. Philip Yeo say himself one. Philip wants to allow ad hominem attacks but not allow criticism of his work."

Download the Internet

***

Number of variations on "Descartes" I've heard this last semester:

1) Day'car
2) Days'cart
3) Discuss
4) Dee cart

Hmm. I thought it was more.

"There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers." - William James

***

The Mystic Pig
	I asked the mystic pig: Are you haram? and the mystic pig said: Naahh Ask the Mystic Pig another question created by ixwin

***

Someone on someone else: "he just throws big names and i dont understand wtf he's saying

i hate ppl like ***
if you really understand something you should be able to explain it simply and clearly without resorting to using big words and big names to support your argument
ppl like him just wanna act smart and show off"

***

New MSN Hotmail Terms of Use:

"You also may not use it in a way that harms us or our affiliates, resellers, distributors, service providers and/or suppliers (collectively, the "Microsoft Parties"), or any customer of a Microsoft Party."

Does complaining about Microsoft or Hotmail and how they suck count?

***

Sex in car man loses licence - "The Romanian man who crashed his car while his girlfriend gave him oral sex has lost his licence for 90 days... Police say Filip, 19, and his girlfriend Andrea Popescu, 18, were so carried away that they even continued in front of spectators after the crash."

Hilary Hahn fanart - OMG

Hobbits Are Very Very Gay: The Evidence - "These pages are very photo intensive and may take awhile to load. I don't own the rights to any of the characters because my last name isn't Tolkien and I don't own any of the people because this year is later than 1863. These pages are meant to be funny and point out that it isn't just Elijah. All the hobbits are very very gay!"

"All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it." - H. L. Mencken

Random Playlist Song: Richter - Haydn Sonata Hob. XVI 32, I

***

I was asked to go to KL this weekend, but declined, since there'd be nothing interesting to do but eat and make fun of Malaysia and Malaysians.

There is a "Windsor convalescent home" near NUS. I find its name quite disturbing.

I've actually found a Singaporean MMPR fan a year older than me; he has a worn MMPR: TM poster in his room.


The July 2002 posts have been restored.

Excerpts:

"People like to refer to psychiatric cases as "P" cases. This might be due to laziness, but I suspect that it is actually an unconscious effort to distance themselves from the ugly reality - that people do go crazy while in indenture. No one cares, or chooses not to. It is never in the press, it is chucked aside and the only way you might ever see the victims is by visiting the SAF ward in Alexandria. And the ever useful US Army Policy on Gays is applied - "Don't ask, don't tell"."

"Through the drudgery of it all, however, there was one bright light. None other than Private Lun Yaodong, Clarence! Yes, this irrepressible personage showed up on Monday complaining of chest pains - evidently doing light fatigue work for National Day stresses him so, but he still has time, through all the strain, to spike his hair - so he was strapped to the ECG machine. What should I have done? Used the rectal thermometer on him? Shot him with a 16 gauge venula?"

"I'm thinking of getting new nametags for my No 4 shirts. "S Q Seah" is just a touch impersonal. I'm looking for something with a bit more character. Maybe I'll even get one saying "Agagooga"."

***

Someone: oh... what char do u play anyway

Me: PBEM or real life [Ed: Meaning real life D&D] or exalted

Someone: real life, u're a Level 14 Cynic?

Me: GAH

Someone: real life, i'm a lvl 20 Hedonist :P

***

Catherine Lim - Utopia or dystopia?

"A nation of politically naive citizens can threaten Singapore's survival. It is time the Government teaches politics and independent thinking to its people.

THE interested observer of the Singapore political scene cannot but notice the emergence of a new model of People's Action Party governance. After 40 years of PAP rule, through the leadership of two prime ministers and in the first year of the third, the emerging model carries the strong endorsement of the past prime ministers and is shaping into a blueprint for future governance."

[more]

Democratic centralism can only take us so far.

***

Vatican announces new communion wafer designs

"In an attempt to broaden the appeal of the Catholic Church and encourage more people to partake of Holy Communion, the Vatican has released details of several new Communion Wafers, to be used alongside the traditional Host.

- Classic - the traditional Host wafer remains unchanged (apart from the addition of essential vitamins and minerals, which are believed to smooth the transition to human flesh)
- Raisin-filled - taking note of the success of various breakfast cereals, this wafer has a plump, juicy raisin inserted into it during the manufacturing stage, to appeal to the health-conscious communee.
- Choc-chip - sprinkled with delicious chips of yummy dark chocolate, this Host is a great introduction wafer for beginners.
- Teddy - same as the Classic wafer, but pre-cut into a cute teddy-bear shape, for the younger members of the congregation. An excellent way to entice recalcitrant kiddies to Church on a cold Sunday.
- Piccante - flavoured with black pepper and chili, this gives the miracle more of a gastronomic kick.
- Inspirational - embossed with short Bible verses, and Holy or humourous messages such as "I died for you", "Don't bite me" and "I am LORD"."

***

According to Nationmaster, Singapore ranks:

- Last in the world for "Agriculture - Root and tuber production (per capita)", "Labor - Regulation" and "Labor - Regulation - Firing"

- 3rd last for "Economy - Industrial production growth rate" (we're shrinking by 9.8%) and "Health - Infant mortality rate"

- 4th last for "Labor - Regulation - Employment Conditions" and "People - Total fertility rate" (maybe the 2 are linked)

- 6th last for "Disasters - Tsunami - Funds pledged (per $ GDP)" and "Health - Plastic surgery procedures" (I guess slimming and bust enhancement doesn't count)

Meanwhile, we're:

- top in "Economy - Net government saving" (I wonder why we're not using our hefty surplus), "Health - Tobacco - Cigarrete imports (per $ GDP)" and "Health - Tobacco - Cigarrete imports (per capita)"

- 2nd in "Crime - Executions (per capita)" (I thought we were top, but the Bahamas has that dubious honour), "Military - Expenditures - dollar figure (per capita)" (Israel's first)

- 3rd in "Democracy - Presidential elections - Registered voter turnout" (Eh? Well, not for non-Presidential ones), "Education - Library members" (This is *not* in per-capita terms, which makes it even more surprising) and "Health - Tobacco - Cigarrete imports" (This is in absolute terms so - ahem)

- 4th in "Democracy - Parliamentary elections - Registered voter turnout" (They've got to be kidding. As defined by "the proportion of registered voters who actually voted", they claim we had a 94.6% turnout in 2001)

- 5th in "Food - McDonalds restaurants (per $ GDP)" (Defined as "Number of McDonalds restaurants. Per $100 million of GDP) and "Government - Suffrage" (We tie for highest age of enfranchisement in the world)

***

A Men's Room Monologue

The smoking scalp? - "Last year, I noticed a presidential trend, that seemed unpresidentially fetishistic, and began collecting images."
Someone: my my, you have a fetish similar to George Bush... at least you two can now overcome your political differences with this common fetish

This chilli is so hot, you'd have to drink 250,000 gallons of water just to put out the fire - ""We live in an extreme world," explains Blair Lazar, a hot sauce creator. "And I make extreme foods.' In his hands is the hottest spice in the world, an ultra-refined version of chilli powder so fiery that customers must sign a waiver absolving him of any liability if they are foolish enough to try it."

Town celebrates Orgasm Day - "The small town of Esperantina marked the day with lectures about sex, impotence and the importance of orgasm... Town mayor Felipe Santolia told Terra Noticias Populares: "I think that the orgasm issue is a very important and modern one.""

***

"South Asian modules are basically out to gain sympathy votes, making the papers easy as hell, while putting in as much (depressing, really!) video clips of the atrocities done against the untouchables, the myraid gender and caste inequalities, the lamentations of the women displaced by civil war, the men weeping for their fates within the karmic wheel, all in an effort to mask the fact that the lectures are really, desperately boring, and worthless in any case. I attended not one full lecture, and the readings are still alien to me. Tip: Wiki and google are your best friends. Especially when it comes to essays. Grin."

Heh.

"Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression." - Amos Bronson Alcott

***

The bell tolls:

APOLOGY

I recognize and accept that a number of statements that I made on my on-line journal “Caustic Soda”, in particular the blog post of 3 March 2005, were defamatory of A*STAR, its Chairman, Mr. Philip Yeo and its executive officers.

I admit and acknowledge that these statements are false and completely without any foundation.

I unreservedly apologize to A*STAR, its Chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment caused to them by these statements.

I undertake not to repeat the statements, or make further statements of the same or similar effect in this or any other forum or media. I further undertake to remove any such posting anywhere that has not been deleted.

“Caustic Soda”? I thought the name of the site was “caustic.soda”. Hmm.

kimochi d'aemii has a picture showing how to upgrade the apology from an "A" to an "A*".

Has nothing changed since 1997? Or is this but an aberration, a momentary blip in our progression to a more open/creative/tolerant/blah blah society?

Young Republic:

">Thanks. If that is indeed the case, A*STAR's grouse sounds weak and petty.
>The developments in the controversy are really picking up. It is all over
>the blogs. My guess is that A*STAR is perhaps trying to wear our everybody
>and make AcidFlask's supporters lose interest and steam eventually.

So what if it's all over the blogs? How does one more complaint online saying how you also don't like A*STAR now help AcidFlask?

What the man needs is money. And a good lawyer. How are any of the bloggers helping in that respect?

Because if Blogosphere doesn't take concerted action against A*STAR to fight them in the real world, the government agencies will henceforth proceed to pick off every other blog one at a time simply because they are assured that the community is too fragmented and selfish to extend anything more than a note of complaint to some other friend's blog.

As for my position; I'm not a lawyer yet, and I don't know the man personally, but if requested I would be more than willing to assist in whatever legal defences that might be needed.

They do not believe in mercy and they shall grant no quarter, save that of total subservience and submission. Remember that."

***

Tim sent me some songs from the Ocean's Twelve soundtrack besides the one that sounds like retards banging in a room, and many of them sound quite sleazy. Which must be why he likes them.

I saw a balding man who'd shaved his head (if a pedant out there asks how I knew he was balding if he'd shaved his head, I could see that some of his follicles were not producing hair anymore) and had a sudden urge to rub it. Maybe I should add this to my list of fetishes.

***

Roofinex (unconsciousafil) tablets - It's only illegal if she remembers

"Guy: I used to have a problem. I couldn't even get girls to notice me. But then, my uncle told me about Roofinex.

Now, girls don't have to notice me. Roofinex changed my life. I have confidence and my performance rate is nearly a 100% - except for a few close calls.

Girl: Where am I?

Guy: Have some more punch.
No one's perfect.

Voiceover: Men everywhere are getting some with Roofinex. Now, your night doesn't have to stop with: 'Eugh, get away' and 'Leave me alone, you creep.'

Girl: Roofinex attacks my brain, knocking me out for a full 8 hours. With no memory, there's no guilt. Roofinex changed my life."

***

Teacher fired for making students vomit loses appeal - "A teacher who encouraged students to drink milk until they vomited as a classroom experiment has lost another attempt to win back his job... Ferguson carried out the experiment in November 2003 with 38 students from two honors chemistry classes. He has said that it was designed to let students test the body's ability to neutralize the acids in milk. Thirteen students threw up."

GUESS - Red Jacket!!!

Chinese Watermelon Art/Sculpture

***

Apparently Science and Law students get their readings zapped for them, unlike us poor Arts students, who have to scurry to the Central Library to zap them, which is why the photocopying room on Level 4 is always teeming with activity, and you can smell what is probably ozone in the air there. Oh, and the latter get them for free, so they get even more value for their school fees than the good student:staff ratio would imply. Wah.


Quotes:

Why don't you make a pack of poker cards with Wo-hen Nankan? Then you can play.

"For humans, honesty is a matter of degree. Engineers are always honest in matters of technology and human relationships. That's why it's a good idea to keep engineers away from customers, romantic interests, and other people who can't handle the truth." - Scott Adams

Random Playlist Song: Bob Rivers - Cane 'Em Good (Lyrics)

"When a vandal comes to town
You must cane him
You know the crime rate sure goes down
When you cane him
He’ll not forget the day
When they caned him
I say cane him
Cane him good"

Bob Rivers actually bothered to parody, in 1994, Michael Fay's caning in Singapore. Funny, though they have someone (presumably the guy administering the caning) talking to Mr Fay in a very faux cheena accent.

***

Less than a week ago, Brose had a post lamenting the aesthetic standard of the female population Science Faculty in the Premier Institution of Social Engineering.

Today I go there, and find that he has taken the site down after being cyber-lynched, just like Singapore's favourite PSC scholar CZ was not so long ago. Although, as far as I know, no one wrote in to the media and/or NUS asking for him to be expelled, the assaults on him were apparently serious enough to justify pulling the site. From what I remember, besides torrents of flames, someone also dug up his full name and posted it there. And from his farewell message, I understand that there have also been real-life recriminations.

And so, apart from a few tantalizing lines on tomorrow.sg, his most excellent post is lost to us for eternity. It may turn up on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine in a few months, but that's improbably given that it was up for barely more than a week (if someone has it, please mail it to me. Thank you).

It's not as if the flames aimed at him had any ground. Although I do not have access to the comments or the original article, from what I remember there were 2 main logical fallacies evident in the flames:

1) You can only comment on those worse than you

This line of argument went something like: "You are fugly yourself. Therefore you can't say anything about NUS Science Girls. Post a picture of yourself to prove that you look good!... You must think you look very good huh?"

Now, if this line of logic were applied to all criticism, movie, book and food critics would all be out of business. Furthermore, arguments' validity are not determined by the identity of those who issue them.

And, as a friend observed: "There's no correlation between being a good literature student and writing good literature. Music critics are often not musicians, film critics are usually not film directors, and art critics are often never artists. The same principle applies here. I believe that if you're a professional critic of any kind then you are by definition honed in the skill of dissembling, but are most probably very very bad in the art of creating."

2) Not all Science girls look bad. In fact some of them look good. Therefore you are an idiot.

In the English language, there is a certain degree of imprecision which we automatically correct for in linguistic processing. When someone says: "The sun will rise tomorrow", we take his words for what they are, and do not pedantically counter that the sun will not rise for us if our planet is suddenly demolished to make way for a new inter-galactic expressway, if all the particles in the sun suddenly switched quantum states, thus ending its existence, or if a cataclysmic volcanic eruption suddenly throws enough ash into the air to block out all sunlight.

As it is with the example above, so is it with many other cases. Though the same mistake is made both by those issuing statements or making pronouncements and those reacting to them. Just because stereotypes are often true does not mean that they are always true; perversely, some lines of thought seem to run like so: just because stereotypes are not always true means that they are never true.

All this is too reminiscent of the CZ affair, even though he was not guilty of the crime which Singaporeans are so perversely proud of lambasting (ie Alleged racism), even while they live in a racist society, surrounded by racist people, are likely racist themselves and hold many other prejudices.

Singaporeans, and probably people in general, really need a good dose of salt in their lives, as well as to be able to treat criticism (often of those other than themselves, too) as if it isn't a personal attack, directed at the cores of their being. Not everyone has skin as thick as me, and if people are afraid of being served with lawsuits, verbally lynched and/or having their identities dug up and disseminated, the resulting impoverishment of ideas will make us all the poorer for it.

It is only a matter of time before the next politically incorrect victim of the pogrom is lynched, or a well-placed sniper shot fells another soul, and we progress further along the road to dreary banality and uncontroversial sterility.


Coupled with the flak that Donaq and I have gotten for not hewing to the politically correct line on racism due, once again, to the presentation of false dichotomies, I find that for once, I am on the same side as a conservative (ooh, fancy that):

"If the Trent Lott fiasco proved anything, it is that one can be a racist without uttering a single word about race or ethnicity. It also demonstrated that even the slightest, most minute impression of the possibility of racial intolerance is considered an unpardonable crime against humanity.

Naturally, a topic like this cannot be discussed without addressing anti-Semitism, racism's ugly sister. Anti-Semitism is another one of those charges that are bandied about with little forethought or debate. In fact, most of those employing the term are unable to explain what it actually means. By today's standards, anti-Semitism includes everything from jokes about ham to the horrible genocide carried out by the Nazis in the '30s and '40s. Talk about a huge disparity!

... I cannot help but wonder how we ended up as a nation of hypersensitive, maladjusted, intellectual weaklings. Is it because we have grown so completely bored that we actually have to create problems where they don’t exist just to keep life interesting? Are we so dissatisfied with our own lives that we feel we must destroy the lives of others?

Indeed, when it comes to volatile issues like racism and anti-Semitism, there are real dragons we need to slay. But how can we do that while focusing all of our energy on those areas where none exist?

In an ironic twist, our unhealthy obsession with "tolerance" has only made us more intolerant, and the wedges we claim to be removing from between diverse groups are only being driven deeper. We are even lectured by public service announcements on television and radio that telling a joke referencing someone's race or sexual orientation is tantamount to committing an act of violence.

What kind of future can we hope to have if this continues? How long will it be before we begin to criminalize thought? With as much attention as we pay to the color of our skin, one would think we might notice how thin it has become."

(Old Right Pundits)


"Don't express your own opinions but those of your boss; Don't endeavour to realise ends which you yourself think good, but pursue rather those aimed at by some organisation supported by millionaires; In your private friendships select influential men if you can, or and failing that, men whom you judge likely to become influential. Do this, and you will win the good opinion of all the best elements in the community. This is sound advice, but for my part, I would sooner die than follow it." - The Advantage of Cowardice, Bertrand Russell

At the same time one must choose one's battles; "He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again." - Cornelius Tacitus

Someone: "increasingly, im really thinking about not coming home. i dont want to move back to singapore. i cant be bothered with it anymore. i dont care about it the way i used to. and it [Ed: Singapore] sickens me.

im quite proud of my apathy actually. that ive actually managed to make myself not care"

Sometimes, apathy looks like an increasingly attractive proposition.

Someone: i'm having 2nd thoughts abotu Cartwheel School.

Me: haha why why
I never liked Gymnastics School :P

Someone: cos their latest gimmick, the leekongchian scholars programme counts among its inaugural batch - 2 NUS dropouts.

Me: haha
wth

as in transfered from NUS
or dropped, then went to SMU

Someone: decided NUS wasn't the place, quit, hung ard for awhile, went smu

Me: hahahaha
too funky what


My No 1 fan blah blah: i hate to tell u this
but u pose for pictures like a girl....
u really do... the hugging the knees thing
the wee smile at the camera
if i didn't know u, i'd swear u were trying to look demure =x

Me: *choke* [Ed: at the demure bit]

My No 1 fan: pls dun take pictures like that again =p
it's kinda freaky
fiesty non-conformist Gabriel poses like a girly

***

Apple - Jobs - International

"Apple's offices circle the globe, with the largest in Cupertino, CA; Cork, Ireland; Singapore; Les Ulis, France; and London, England. Regional headquarters for business operations, such as Sales and Marketing, for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), are located in Les Ulis and London. Our main European operations are located in Cork. Singapore houses the headquarters for the Asia Pacific region.

While the regions differ from location to location, they all share beautiful campuses located in or near major cities. The Les Ulis office is just outside the historic city of Paris, minutes from gorgeous wooded areas and central Paris alike. Cork, Ireland's second largest city, was recently nominated Europe's Capital of Culture. And the Singapore office lives in the hub of the Silicon Valley of Singapore — the Ang Mo Kio neighborhood." (Emphasis mine)

You learn something new everyday.

***

Offshoring Conflicts with National Interests

"The benefits of offshoring, are justified on a dated 19th century economic concept: "comparative advantage." The benefits often largely accrue to investors and management elites; the costs are increasingly borne by workers and middle class professionals. In the geopolitical realm, a world power that loses it manufacturing capacity no longer is a world power...

Key to the use of the Ricardian theory is the creation of "new and better jobs" to fill the outsourcing void (which isn't clearly happening). This often leads defenders of outsourcing to hit the "R&D Button," or to call for more government funding of research and development. Or it can also lead them to hitting the "Education Button" to encourage more U.S. college students, skeptical about employment prospects, to major in science and engineering in spite the outsourcing risk. Craig Roberts points out, it has been years since the U.S. economy has created any "net new" jobs in export/import-competitive industries. The projected job growth over the next decade, per February 2004 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for seven of the top 10 occupations, lies largely in menial areas that can be learned without a college degree. So the government's own projections suggest the creation of largely low-tech rather than high-tech jobs over the next decade...

The McKinsey Global Institute finds that "Every dollar a U.S. company spends on offshoring to India, the U.S. economy gains $1.12 to $1.14." Really?... The study itself is drawn from case studies done by McKinsey consultants; the data are unavailable for review. Most importantly the study assumes that workers, displaced by offshore outsourcing, will be "redeployed" soon at substantially the same wages. Such redeployment (Exhibit 6 of the MGI study) accounts for about $0.45 of the $1.12 to $1.14. Without re-employment in "new" industries, much of $1.12 to 1.14 benefit for $1.00 cost goes away!"

***

Scissors, paper, stone - a strategic game

"The Maspro Denkoh electronics corporation was selling its $20 million collection of Picassos and Van Goghs, but the director could not decide whether Sotheby's or Christie's should have the privilege of auctioning them.

So he announced that the deal would go to the winner of a single round of scissors, paper, stone - the children's game that relies on quick fire hand gestures, where stone beats scissors, scissors beat paper, and paper beats stone.

Sotheby's reluctantly accepted this as a 50/50 game of chance, but Christie's asked the experts, Flora and Alice, 11-year-old daughters of the company's director of Impressionist and modern art, and aficionados of the game...

Neil Thomson has studied Monopoly mathematically, using probability matrices. It turns out the best properties are the orange ones - Vine Street, Marlborough Street, Bow Street in the London version... Scrabble meanwhile is a matter of fierce international championships, though it hasn't attracted so much interest from computers. Top players agree that one of the keys is learning all those two-letter words that seem to exist solely for the sake of Scrabble - like "aa" (a kind of lava) and "xu" (a monetary unit in Vietnam)."

(via xue, who has finally been agagooga-ed)

***

A graduate school survival guide: "So long, and thanks for the Ph.D!" - "Computer Science majors are not, in general, known for their interpersonal skills. Some of us got into this field because it is easier to understand machines than people. As frustrating as computers can be, they at least behave in a logical manner, while human beings often do not"

Why don't you [Ed: Ben and Jerry's] use oreos any more? - "Well, back in 1990 we switched to a cookie that wasn't made with lard (a kosher no-no) and wasn't connected with the tobacco industry."
Wah. Get me some US Oreos!

Global Gene Project to Trace Humanity's Migrations - "New DNA studies suggest that all humans descended from a single African ancestor who lived some 60,000 years ago. To uncover the paths that lead from him to every living human, the National Geographic Society today launched the Genographic Project at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. The project is a five-year endeavor undertaken as a partnership between IBM and National Geographic. It will combine population genetics and molecular biology to trace the migration of humans from the time we first left Africa, 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, to the places where we live today."

Steve Jobs's Review Of His Biography: Ban It - "No one can accuse Steve Jobs of indifference. In an image-obsessed fit of pique, Apple Computer has banished books published by John Wiley & Sons from the shelves of Apple's 105 retail stores--all because of Wiley's plans to publish an unauthorized biography of Jobs, Apple's chief executive."

Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills - "A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police."

"A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats." - Anonymous

***



8 guys, a girl (not in picture) and a bachelor's pad - the third Young Republic gathering

No, we don't just sit around discussing Derrida, Foucault and other French idiots!


People complained about the gender ratio, but I pointed out that it was infinitely better than the first two gatherings. In any case, such is hardly surprising given both that the list and topics draw males predominantly, and that females either are overseas or probably have better things to do than, in the abode of He Who Must Not Be Named until 3 AM, offer (or alternately accept or spurn) false dichotomies offered about being oppressed by The System or rising above it, and doing/talking about other silly things males are fond of doing in their free time.

Perhaps we now have a chance of breaking the vicious circle, especially for the upcoming Summer Jamboree, when most people will be back from overseas, so the grumbles will be lower in intensity then. Maybe we can adapt the marketing strategies of clubs (but then limited amounts of booze were free for everyone in the first place, courtesy of our kind and generous host, so maybe not).

Ah, heck it. I'm not the one complaining anyway.

***

The public outpouring of grief at Wee Kim Wee's death seems much more profuse, extended and well-covered in the media than that at Ong Teng Cheong's death; apparently when the latter died, the news was only reported in page 2 or 3 of the Straits Times' Home section, and only after a few days too. Moral of the story: make sure everyone likes you, so you don't get a low key funeral.

***

In a LJ post:

Xeno Boy: Xenoboy is puzzled. when Molly writes "ref Xenoboy" is it XenoBoy who is the transgressor?

If so, XenoBoy has to figure out the following :

What is the insult?
Where is the insult?

Subsequently, XenoBoy has to figure out what is an "unreserved" apology and what is a "reserved" apology? And if you pre-fix or post-fix a nice quote to the apology, does it disqualify it as a unreserved apology and relegates it to the reserved category? Xenoboy likes to quote very much because he does not like to invent phrases.

XenoBoy pouts forth a proposal. If I lie in my apology but make it poetic, will I be invited to the birthday party? I do very much wish to have a dialogist session with Molly.

ahbohling: it must be genius when i don't understand what this comment is about (particularly if i understood what the post was all about) or at least someone more genius than me.

Xeno Boy: This is the reason why I have been blasted as failing in profundity and being ineligible to qualify for the kindergarten CNA and the primary level ST.

Me: Profundity for the sake of profundity is meaningless. Eschew obfuscation.

Empty jargon and bombast does nothing except give a faux reification of the content of discourse.

Cui bono?


Molly’s Faminist Manifesto

"The Don’ts
1. Men, do not expect women to cook for you, do the laundry or stay at home.
2. Do not boss women around.
3. Do not be naïve! Be mature and behave like a real MAN!
4. Do not bring a dainty, sophisticated and elegant woman like Molly to the hawker center when there is a nice hotel somewhere.
5. Men must not behave as though they are superior to women.
6. Never treat women as sex objects.
7. Never think that women cannot take up male tasks!
8. Never think that assertive women are less feminine! (Look, Xiaxue is no less feminine than Molly.)
9. Men must never treat women as intellectual inferiors.
10. Do not fall in love with another man.

The Do’s
1. Do open doors for women, pull out chairs for them—behave like a knight even if you do not wear any armor.
2. Take charge! Behave like a man! Do not be wishy-washy!
3. Be practical; succeed in your career.
4. Be romantic; don’t be so practical.
5. Men must ALWAYS maintain their masculinity!
6. Be open to women’s debate about the best bod in Hollywood. It’s not right for men to talk about Pamela Anderson’s breast, but it is every woman’s right to compare the butts of Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
7. Do carry heavy things for women; carry the lighter loads such as the nightgown that you have just bought her.
8. You must know how to make a woman feel like a woman!
9. Women are emotional and you must be sensitive to their emotions and avoid imposing an overdose of rationality on them!
10. Do not fall in love with another woman."

***

Gah.


On May 7th, 2005 at 1:46 am cakira said:
Sorry, but what is this MSN bug that everyone’s complaining about? I’m using the build of Jan 18 (0.4 alpha) and in very very few cases I’ve ever seem it (and I think it was my contact’s fault then). I was thinking about upgrading straight to this test build (the changelog is awesome!), but now I’m afraid. Is this problem new or not? (A wasn’t able to find it in the bugs system) Can I upgrade to this test build, should I upgrade to release 0.4 ou must I stay as I am, since I’m having no problems? Thank you!

On May 7th, 2005 at 9:09 am w1ckedsick! said:
I believe the problem started from 0.4 and still hasn’t been fixed.

On May 7th, 2005 at 10:09 am pixador said:
@cakira: it’s safe to upgrade. This problem only affects very few people (and they keep complaining instead of providing network logs and details about their configuration).
If you haven’t experienced this problem before, you won’t have it now.

On May 7th, 2005 at 10:57 am w1ckedsick! said:
Don’t take his word for it, his only having ago at us because the dev team are frustrated they can’t fix it :p

On May 7th, 2005 at 11:04 am rainwater said:
Personally, I am not frustrated. I don’t see any good reports in the bug tracker on this topic, so it’s frankly not a big deal.

On May 7th, 2005 at 4:41 pm chaosblade said:
You sound like the frustrated ones, because a bug only a few select people have and wont properly report isnt getting fixed. You’re looking like a little kid, crying to his parents about a new toy they wont get him.


I've posted a network log before, but haven't been doing so recently because there's no option to cap the size of network logs, and since I got that 2GB network log some time back when I forgot to turn off network logging, running out of hard disk space to boot, I've been extremely traumatised.

But I finally got down to getting a network log with the latest MSN.dll, and lo and behold, in 14 minutes and trying to resend a short message twice (and only trying to resend a message twice), the network log ballooned to 15.1MB. I tried uploading the 15.1MB network log to the bug tracker but twice Firefox crashed and once IE claimed I didn't give them a bug id. The RAR (25kb) and ZIP (78kb) versions of the network log could not be uploaded because the file type wasn't allowed.

***

Emma Stuffs... | yes she does; we have proof - "A perfect side view of Ms. Watson... she is clearly lacking something from #1..."
This is hilarious. As is:

Trying Too Hard :: an Anti Emma Watson site - "where did those come from?! WHAT THE HELL?! And I think they look really wierd. like lumpy. REAL BOOBS DO NOT LOOK LIKE THAT!... OH BLOODY HELL! SHE'S GONE PAMELA ANDERSON ON US! dude the shirt is way too fucking tight... now to times in 2003! ..................... OH hey em! WHERE DID THE PAMELA ANDERSON'S GO?! O.K. you cannot say that her boobs look smaller because of her shirt being looser. Admittedly this shirt would probably make them look a little bit smaller because its black and not as tight,but probably just a size smaller, if anything, but she went from a C cup to like a AAA (yes they make triple A's. They're basicaly training bra's for flat people.)"

A plan to offshore . . . just 3 miles out - "Roger Green is a software entrepreneur. David Cook was once a supertanker skipper who spent 15 years hauling crude oil through the world's sea lanes. Now the two men have announced a remarkable venture called SeaCode, a company that plans to hire 600 superb software designers from every corner of the world and house them in a luxury cruise ship just out of reach of US immigration law -- but close enough to bid on multimillion-dollar US software contracts."

The death of privacy - "Why is it a criminal offence for a man to spy on his wife in his own home and not show what he is seeing to anyone else, but perfectly acceptable for the media to spy on celebrities, politicians and anyone else they take against and reveal their findings to millions?"

As many wars as nations - "We can already see that a common European version of the Second World War is not exactly probable. Each nation had a different experience, each one has fostered and exposed its own war myths, as recorded in photographs, memoirs, novels or films, changing with the passage of time and often internally contradictory. First of all, the versions told by the two main victors dominated. It was they who imposed their view on the war. The superpowers not only won the war and dictated the terms of peace, they also had the mass media to disseminate their triumph. Only against this background could the individual European countries start to establish their own myths, as a nation united in its resistance to the Nazi invader, even if, as in the case of Finland, Slovakia or Bulgaria, that invader was for some time an ally, patron or friendly ruler."

***

People were telling me tales of the Law Library Gestapo. Someone left a tube of Mentos (unopened) on the table, and his name got taken down. He was also told that if he was caught with food in his possession once more, he would be suspended from school (though we doubt that the Library Gestapo is so empowered).

Apparently in the past, bag searches for contraband (read: food) were carried out. And when the place is crowded, the Gestapo will chase non-Law students out because it is "their library". To which we rage, since we pay school fees as well (and indeed, since they have nicer facilities and a better staff:student ratio, their hidden subsidy is probably much greater than ours). If they want to be so closed and exclusive, maybe we should ban Law students from other libraries in NUS. Hell, we can ban them from the Arts and Business canteens also, then they can hide in their little faculty, having it exclusively to themselves.


I was in MPSH1 (one of our exam halls), and had no handphone reception. Maybe they have some secret jamming device to disrupt reception.


Quotes:

They call us SNAILS [Ed: Students Not Actually In Law School], we call them SLUGS - Stupid Law UnderGraduateS

Please leave the statistical tables on the table. Do not take them back with you, not even as a souvenir.

"During the French Revolution, when the Reign of Terror came to an end, it was found that no one was left alive among the politicians except prudent cowards who had changed their opinions quickly enough to keep their heads on their shoulders. The result was twenty years of military glory, because there was no one left among the politicians with sufficient courage to keep the generals in order. The French Revolution was an exceptional time, but wherever organisation exists cowardice will be found more advantageous than courage. Of the men at the head of businesses, schools and lunatic asylums, and the like, nine out of ten will prefer the supple lickspittle to the outspoken man of independent judgement. In politics it is necessary to profess the party programme and flatter the leaders; in the navy it is necessary to profess antiquated views on naval strategy; in the army it is necessary to maintain a mediaeval outlook on everything; in journalism wage slaves have to use their brains to give expression to the opinions of millionaires; in education professors lose their jobs if they do not respect the prejudices of the illiterate.


The result of this state of affairs is that in practically every walk of life the men who come to the top have served a long apprenticeship in cowardice, while the honest and courageous have to be sought for in workhouses and prisons. Is this regrettable?


The modern world, owing to industrialism, requires social co-operation more than it was required in any earlier stage in the world's history. Now there are three reasons for which you may co-operate with a man: Because you love him and because you fear him, or because you hope to share the swag. These three motives are of differing importance in different regions of human co-operation: The first governs procreation, and the third governs politics. But the ordinary everyday business of government, whether in the state or in any other social institution, depends upon fear. A collection of fearless men would be ungovernable. The Vikings were men whom the King of Norway found ungovernable; They left Norway because they would not submit themselves to his sway. After a few centuries of adventure, they became peasants in the frozen valleys of lceland.


Consider, as a contrast, the great Duke of Marlborough. He secured the first steps in his career by causing his sister to become the mistress of James II. His great days were due to the passionate friendship between his wife and Queen Anne. Whenever he fought the French he beat them, but he was always ready to refrain from fighting if the King of France made it worth his while. He left a great name, and a great fortune, and his descendants to this day are patterns for patriots. The arts of success have changed little since his day, in spite of the nominal advent of democracy. Now, as in the past, if you wish for success you should be insinuating and pusillanimous rather than bold and self-reliant.


To those, therefore, whose ambition it is to die in the odour of sanctity, respected by bank managers, admired by friends and neighbours, and universally regarded as models of what a citizen should be, my advice is: Don't express your own opinions but those of your boss; Don't endeavour to realise ends which you yourself think good, but pursue rather those aimed at by some organisation supported by millionaires; In your private friendships select influential men if you can, or and failing that, men whom you judge likely to become influential. Do this, and you will win the good opinion of all the best elements in the community.


This is sound advice, but for my part, I would sooner die than follow it."


- The Advantage of Cowardice, Bertrand Russell. [From: Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.］

An ocean called Grace, and a Son that shines.

Ok.... if you've already given up the llama song lyrics are here.

My supervisor's going to give me back my thesis draft today.... *cold feet*. Guidelines to good blogging:

1. Get browned.
2. Get miyagi-ed.
3. Get xia-suayed, i mean xia-xued.
4. Get agagooga-ed.

This is really random ... Jared Diamond is coming to melbourne to give a talk on 1 june! i might go.

Concoctions so far this year:
1. Zucchini pie with pita bread base. Ang moh-style dinner ... paired with a riesling that was okay, wasn't too fantastic.
2. Andrew salad, i.e. halal caeser salad (no bacon!) with some greek salad vegetables (spanish onions, cucumber, red capsicum)
3. Not-so-sweet peach ice-cream with walnuts (for the diabetics).
4. Fu juk with an overdose of gingko for chinese new year dinner at the Chia's. Thanks renee!
5. LovelyPurpleSweet potato soup! again , inspiration from shiokadelicious.

Coming up soon...
1. Lemon verbana-vodka liquer
2. Not-so-sweet Strawberrysmoothie
3. Coca-cola ham... glazed this time.

What do u all think of blogs with more than one author?

Ah ... since Agagooga is on hiatus i shall entertain all of you! hur hur hur. NOTE: AGAGOOGA =/= ANDREW!!!

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

- courtesy of Joel. I memorised the song after listening to it 5 times - see if you can do it in less!

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." - Voltaire

***

My statistics textbook reads like an advertisement for Minitab and PHStat (some statistical programs).


More sample exam questions:

1. A professor is attempting to predict the marks that students get for his final exam by regressing them against the amount of time spent studying for it. He has observations on these 2 variables for 6 students, as shown below:

Time spent studying (hours)        Marks
103                                58
90                                 65
100                                60
80                                 70
76                                 72
70                                 80

a) Obtain the least square estimates of the intercept and slope coefficient in the professor's linear regression of Marks on Time spent studying.

(Punching my calculator, I get b0 = 119.555 and b1 = - 0.608)

b) Interpret the estimated slope coefficient and test whether it is different from zero at the 5% significance level.

(For every additional hour spent studying, the students lower their marks by 0.608 points. I don't feel like doing the hypothesis testing, so I'll skip it. Anyhow it's hard to present online.)

c) How many hours should one study to get 100 marks?

(yi = b0 + b1xi
100 = 119.555 - 0.608xi
xi = 32.16

One should study for 32.16 hours to get 100 marks.)

d) Can the estimated intercept value be sensibly interpreted? What lessons can we learn from this regression analysis?

(No. You can never get more than 100 marks. Don't study too much, for after some time you'll get negative returns like these poor chaps above.)


2. The average NUS student can pick 5 modules to study per semester. He has a choice of Type A modules (Mean grade 4.5, variance 0.5) or Type B modules (Mean grade 5.0, variance 1). The modules are assumed to be independent (ie covariance 0), and due to the bell curve grading system, the marks for the modules are normally distributed.

a) If he takes 3 Type A and 2 Type B modules, what is his mean CAP for the semester?

((3 x 4.5 + 2 x 5.0)/5 = 4.7)

b) What is the probability that his semestral CAP drops below 4.0 if he takes 5 Type A modules?

(P(X<20) = P(Z<20-22.5/25) = P(Z<-1) = P(Z>1) = 0.1587)

***

"Punctuated equlibria and genetic drift are already explained in the various posts. With regard to the former, nobody quite understands what Gould and Eldridge was rambling about and it certainly changed over time. So, forget about it."

Heh.

***

Pages which play songs after loading are really annoying. I was happily listening to my Mass In B Minor, Bwv 232 - Symbolum Nicenum (Credo) - I. Credo In Unum Deum, when the strains of a guitar and a guy singing became audible (Collide - Howie Day, I later found out). Everytime this happens I get this irrational fear that somehow my MP3 has become corrupted

And when one loads more than one of them at a time, thanks to the joys of tabbed browsing, a big mess is created. Luckily I have the 'Zap Plugins' bookmarklet.

***

This page on Tym's blog has become the (semi-)official bulletin board for 2A03A 2001 / 1A03A 2000. Ah, the wonders of modern communication.

***

The NUS network doesn't block access to Chick.com, unlike SCV (yes, it's still blocked by SafeSurf). This, of course, must be because there are too many fundies on campus.


I was very offended by this leaflet I found in the Arts Canteen. The cover was decorated with bright colours, and had ambiguously worded lines promising hope and that sort of thing. Of course, this got my guard up.

Sure enough, when I looked inside the leaflet promoted "the healing power of Jesus", and was complete with fulsome testimonials.

If health product makers can be jailed for false advertising, or at the very least have to put up disclaimers saying that their products' efficacy has not scientifically proven, what more this religious snake oil? Especially since many of the diseases cures are promised for are terminal ones, making this a crime a few order of magnitudes worse than selling magic stones or normal snake oil (which don't promise to save your soul or your life, and at least are tangible and can be held in your hands).

The funniest flash ever!!!

http://www.planearium2.de/flash/spstudio.html

The Law Library is deathly quiet, due not just to its emptiness but also to the efforts of the Library Gestapo.

I have left due one essay close reading a prior work of mine and an open book statistics exam in which the book will likely be necessary but not sufficient and the exam very hard, going by last term's paper and the fact that a non-neglibible proportion of the cohort is from Science/Engineering.

Due to the exigencies of my current situation, I shall be on sabbatical once again from now till Friday.

"I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it." - Thomas Jefferson

Random Playlist Song: Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 3 - 01 - Introduzione. Andantino - Allegro marziale

***

Readers are advised to check the "posted by" line at the end of each post to ascertain the identity of the poster.

Back to studying tomorrow. One last paper left - on Friday!

***

I had thought that, just as it is impossible to find Malaysian Fried Noodles anywhere -in- Malaysia, Singapore Bee Hoon is similarly impossible to find in Singapore.

However, in a restaurant along River Valley Road near Great World City, I found "Singapore Bee Hoon", fried with small prawns, small slices of chicken and vegetables, and with a slight red tinge to it. Tym informed me that the "Singapore" element of any dish with the "Singapore" appellation was a sprinkling of curry powder, and indeed that seemed to be the case. [Addendum: Meanwhile Yucheng informs me that 2 years ago, he sighted the same dish on the Island of Doom.]



People expressed disdain at this discovery, saying that they or their mothers could easily cook "Singapore Bee Hoon", but the culinary significance of this discovery cannot be underestimated.

***

A friend in BRMC (Barker Road Methodist Church) gave me probably the most reliable information so far on Lee Wei Kong, the ACJC rugby captain who got involved in the RTA (Road Traffic Accident).

He says that he was either an infidel or a weak christian, that they'd all been praying for him to be seduced by them, and that that day was his first time going to the church.

Meanwhile the BRMC website alternately names him "a friend of BRMC" and a member of BRMC. And he's been getting a lot of get well cards from innocent ACPS students. No doubt he is receiving a great deal of support, encouragement and inducement from similar sources, just as some victims of last year's Tsunami received both preaching and aid.

Unfortunately, especially under this barrage, I fear that he will be seduced by the dark side in his hour of despair. One can only hope for his soul. I am almost moved to go down myself, but know that I will be driven away with pitchforks, doused with Holy Water and burnt at the stake by his protectors.

***

Review of Chasms of Malice:

"The True Shield has been taken by a baddie and will, unless some lone champion rectifies the whole situation, inexplicably give the Khuddam nasties the ability to multiply according to the formula a(n)=7^(2n), a progression the book itself loses track of after the fourth term. That's right, they'll swamp THE WHOLE WORLD. It doesn't matter how many times those Allansian freaks save the planet in _their_ neighbourhood, some other hero slips up once in Khul and it's all for nothing."

nw.t: "first they will be 49, then 2,401, then 5,764,801, until they are uncountable hordes, and Orghuz becomes invincible"

***

To Honor the Earth, Speak to the Issues and Not the Myths - "In addition to having been "grown or produced within 100 miles of Houston (salt, pepper, and olive oil were exempt)," the planet-saving "test supper" could not "have been slathered with pesticides." One conjures an image of mad farmers gleefully going about splashing pesticides all over their crops oblivious to the costs of the pesticides and with some perverse desire to poison their customers and destroy their market and the planet. The use of the term "slathered" to describe the very careful use of low-dose pesticides in modern agriculture and the regulations involved, reflects a prevailing ignorance among food writers and the general public that has been very carefully nurtured by the back-to-nature enthusiasts. They assume that "organic" agriculture does not use pesticides. This is a myth if not an outright fraud. The "organic" movement argues that the "natural" pesticides that it uses are more benign than the synthetic pesticides used in conventional agriculture, but there is no evidence for that. And some of these "natural" pesticides are administered in much larger quantities, which may not be enough to qualify as being "slathered" but certainly are a far closer approximation of "slathered" than are the synthetic pesticides used in conventional agriculture."

Arabic and Islamic themes in Frank Herbert's "Dune" - "Those who are familiar with Frank Herbert's famous novel Dune know that he took his analogy from the oil of the Middle East, and that the novel is symbolic about the dependance of the West on the oil, and the power struggles to control this valuable resource... What is not well known are the various Islamic undertones, and Arabic etymologies that Frank Herbert put in Dune. The purpose of this article is to try to list these themes, and trace them back to whatever Islamic concept there is (if any)."
Damn close reading...

AD GUY STARTER KIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - A kit to make you creative. Just yours for 4 easy payments of $24.95. Included, among other things, are black horn-rimmed glasses so sharp they can cut through a tomato. The government should get this for everyone in Singapore.

***

Quotes:

80% of NSF officers have this dao look, and they all have this sort of girlfriends. Otherwise people think they're gay... Trophy girlfriends. Not very smart one... All look very young.

Someone sent me this site at 2am when I couldn't sleep even though my body was begging for it and I knew work the following morning would be brutal.

http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/

I'm not entirely sure if feel better or not after going through it.

So i have a tendency to fall asleep during movies. And not just any movies, heart-stopping blow-your-eyeballs-out movies.

1) While watching "The green mile". Los Angeles, 1999 on a school trip. Okay, so i thought the front bit was pretty bo-ring and thought i could get away with a bit of shut-eye in a 3-hour movie... kai nudged me in the ribs and woke me up just as a man was being electrocuted. You know, the one where the electrodes connect to a sponge put on the man's head, but the sadistic character did not wet the sponge before electrocution... so the guy was fried... literally.

2) Passion of the christ. Yes i'm a christian and i'm supposed to be all attentive 'n all during the suffering bit... but it was going over and over and over again ...! plus it wasn't my first time watching it.

3) Star wars. I'm not such a big george lucas fan.

"If you care too much about Singapore, first it'll break your spirit, and finally it will break your heart." - Alfian Sa'at

Random Playlist Song: Bob Rivers - Walkin' Round In Women's Underwear (Sung to the tune of "Winter Wonderland")

Chorus:
Lacy things -- the wife is missin',
Didn't ask -- her permission,
I'm wearin' her clothes,
Her silk pantyhose,
Walkin' 'round in women's underwear.

In the store -- there's a teddy,
Little straps -- like spaghetti,
It holds me so tight,
Like handcuffs at night,
Walkin' 'round in women's underwear.

Guy:
In the office there's a guy named Melvin,
He pretends that I am Murphy Brown.

Chorus:
He'll say, "Are you ready?" We'll say, "Whoa, Man!"
"Let's wait until the wife is out of town!"

Later on, if you wanna,
We can dress -- like Madonna,
Put on some eyeshade,
And join the parade,
Walkin' 'round in women's underwear!

Lacy things... missin',
Didn't ask... permission,
Wearin' her clothes,
Her silk pantyhose,
Walkin' 'round in women's underwear,
Walkin' 'round in women's underwear,
Walkin' 'round in women's underwear!

(This song is dedicated to the people on Triumph fan)

***

My sources tell me that not only have the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia exams been dumbed down, the markers apparently know what ethnicity you are.

Too many people seem to think that I'm a walking dictionary and like to pelt me with requests for word meanings when I am online. Given the diversity and easy availability of online dictionaries, this is most infuriating. In future I shall turn down all such online requests; grammar I can still consider. Either that or give them the wrong meanings! MUAHAHA!!! [Tym: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You are so evil. You should be a teacher :0 Wicked wicked good idea.]

I wonder why males are so fond of wearing football shirts. Perhaps it is a way they can connect with their dreams and aspirations, and live vicariously through others. In which case I should buy for myself a mullet wig, coloured spandex, or a crossbow.

Listening to the samples on RangDong Entertainment, I realise that Asian Prince's music isn't the same as Tuan Anh's music. I'm quite annoyed. And to think I was going to buy the CD!

***

I find it amusing that some of those who profess to loathe racism so subscribe to the theory that those of Chinese ancestry are obliged to speak their ancestral languages (ie "You are Chinese, so you must speak Chinese"). Such biological determinism is ironically behind most racist behavior (eg "You are Malay, so you must be lazy).


Someone on someone's complaint that a Chinese woman complaining about some Indian's smell on the MRT and moving away was racist:

"I moved a few days back because a CHINESE construction worker plopped his sweaty musty body beside me. In fact, I got up and even though there were people standing and it was the only seat left, no one took it. Was everyone standing RACIST then. And I'm Chinese, so how does that make me racist. Smelly is smelly. It's like someone smoking at the bus stop. They will say "they can't help it", well I can't help fanning my hand in front of my nose to get rid of it. It smelled like preserved fart.

Whoever is smelly, I'll move. That's a totally bad example. I hate it when people think I'm racist just cos I say that person stinks (not to their faces) and they happen to be of a different race. Stink is just Stink. Unless Stink is a race, how am I RACIST?"

Other comments from the same thread: "well, if the government continues to use racial indicators of CMIO for every citizen of mixed heritage (say Indian-Chinese) and make them choose their heritage according to their patrilineal line; if having separate academic bursaries awarded to the Best Chinese/Malay/Indian student instead of a "Best Student" award are enforced; if the education institutes are made to teach -day in, day out- about the 4 major races that we have in Singapore... racial sterotypes comes dangerously close to being interpreted as "racism".

as my friend puts it, as long as you teach about a difference, you are made increasingly aware that you are different and you'll start expecting others to treat you differently. similarly, you'll hold yourself as "befitting" of your racial category. it is, i think, a very bad cycle."

"from personal experiences, i have had people made my life difficult by them claiming precedence over meal decisions cos they have special dietary habits (for all races, mind). because one is ABSOLUTELY brought up to be accepting and tolerant, this happens during EVERY single meal and we have to make extra precautious to not "offend" their sensibilities. *sigh* so pardon me while i try to juggle my frustrations with my needing to strangle that person(s) and dealing with ideals of a better good for the hegemonic whole."

***

I caught the last episode of Stress Out, which was on Joint Pain. It was most amusing, and also really weird, since Jason Chan was no longer speaking in his PRNS pseudo-American accent, but instead in a pseudo-Malaysian-Australian accent.

The show itself was odd, since it promoted what struck me as quasi-alternative therapies, as well as an AIBI product (since they sponsor the show), and ended off with a recipe for fruit salad - supposedly good for joint pain. All this left me going: "wth?!"

***

Quasimodo Neverland

"Pulau Tekong is a disfigured grotesque Neverland of Singapore. Where time stops and people cease to grow up. Where men of 25 have minds of 18 year olds.

Where we are all part of a big handpuppet play and the fat boys of Neverland sing songs and makebelieve.

Where Captain Hooks linger galore and impose false and comical tyranny. With extra swashbuckle oomph and chinkchank flurry.

We are a motley crew of stage soldiers. With wooden swords and little Robin Hood caps." (Two Sleepy People) via No Concept of Liberty, which comments thus:

"The 'extra swashbuckle oomph' also made me think of how these idiots like to make you shout ever more loudly and conform ever more strictly to their little ballet of marching ('Shoulder level, shoulder level!', or 'Dig in your heels!', etc ad nauseum) . These deliberately ostentatious and petty exercises of authority are all quite Foucauldian, and crisply illustrate the whole total institution / Panopticon society thesis. Indeed, they can be said to function as a play-within-a-play in this context, thus magnifying the potential for irony."

***

Someone showed me the website of Bob Jones University, the initials of which are, ironically, BJU.

They have a very interesting dress code:

"For Men: Hair must be cut in a traditional, conservative style–not shaved, spiked, tangled, or shelved. It may not be colored or highlighted.

For All: Abercrombie & Fitch and its subsidiary Hollister have shown an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness in their promotions. In protest, we will not allow articles displaying their logos to be worn, carried, or displayed (even if covered or masked in some way)."

Yes, you guessed it! It's a fundie university. They offer over 125 Majors, including Bible, Bible (Women) [Ed: What's the difference? Do they teach women their rightful place in the latter course?], Biology [Ed: I'd trust a biologist who believes in Creationism as much as an obstetrician who believes that the stork delivers babies] and Creative Writing [Ed: They probably share some modules with Bible majors].

I suspect this is where all the fundies get their PhDs so they can themselves "Dr XXX".

[Addendum: Jie Kai adds:

"Bob Jones University is also notorious for having banned inter-racial
relationships up till a few years ago, as well as having a founder who is known
to be virulently anti-catholic, as well as a racist."]

***

Mankiw’s Ten Principles of Economics, Translated by Yoram Bauman
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

"The cornerstone of Harvard professor N. Gregory Mankiw’s introductory economics textbook, Principles of Economics, is a synthesis of economic thought into Ten Principles of Economics (listed in the first table below). A quick perusal of these will likely affirm the reader’s suspicions that synthesizing economic thought into Ten Principles is no easy task, and may even lead the reader to suspect that the subtlety and concision required are not to be found in the pen of N. Gregory Mankiw.

I have taken it upon myself to remedy this unfortunate situation. The second table below summarizes my attempt to translate Mankiw's Ten Principles into plain English, and in doing so to provide the uninitiated with an invaluable glimpse of the economic mind at work. Explanations and details can be found in the pages that follow, but the average reader is advised to simply cut out the table below and carry it around for assistance in the (hereafter unlikely) event of confusion about the basic Principles of Economics.

------------------------------------------------------------

Mankiw’s Principles

#1. People face tradeoffs.
#2. The cost of something is what you give up to get it.
#3. Rational people think at the margin.
#4. People respond to incentives.
#5. Trade can make everyone better off.
#6. Markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity.
#7. Governments can sometimes improve market outcomes.
#8. A country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services.
#9. Prices rise when the government prints too much money.
#10. Society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment.

------------------------------------------------------------

Yoram’s Translations

#1. Choices are bad.
#2. Choices are really bad.
#3. People are stupid.
#4. People aren’t that stupid.
#5. Trade can make everyone worse off.
#6. Governments are stupid.
#7. Governments aren’t that stupid.
#8. Blah blah blah.
#9. Blah blah blah.
#10. Blah blah blah."

Quantum Microeconomics is interesting also, though I don't know if I'll ever get down to reading it.

***

What exactly was the sin of Onan? - "St. Antonius (1391-1451) used so many euphemisms that we're not always sure what he was talking about."
Heh heh

Collective Nouns - "One of the many oddities of the English language is the multitude of different names given to collections or groups, be they beasts, birds, people or things. Many of these collective nouns are beautiful and evocative, even poetic."
Some interesting ones: A covey of ptarmigans (birds), A pomp of pekingese (mammals), A stuck of jellyfish (invertebrates), An intrusion of cockroaches (Insects and Arachnids), An escargatoire of snails (Molluscs), A glean of herrings (Fish), A rhumba of rattlesnakes (Amphibians and Reptiles), A subtlety of sergeants at law (People), A phantasmagoria of phantoms (Miscellaneous)

A Plain School Uniform as the Latest Aphrodisiac - "'Lots of Japanese men feel very threatened by adult women,' said Masao Miyamoto, a male psychiatrist and the author of a best-selling analysis of Japanese society. 'But a 15-year-old girl would not be threatening. It's not so much sexual as psychological.'... 'The age at which the girls seem interesting is clearly dropping,' said Hiroyuki Fukuda, a 30-year-old man who edits a magazine called Anatomical Illustrations of Junior High School Girls. 'But it's only the maniacs who go for girls below the third grade.'"
At least it's not cockroaches...

The latest Happy Tree Friends episode is out! Keepin It Reel: Check out what's on screen at the cinema!

***

"haha, ***, perhaps ya shouldnt have mentioned Descartes; Descartes is the food and staple of our esteemed philsopher Gabriel Seah, and he can go on for hours on philosophy, u wun wan to get him started on it man......oops sorry gabriel! spilled ur lil secret....!" - Gah.

I don't know how people can spend so much time studying and mugging. Don't they run out of things to study? Don't they get bored? Maybe it's because on average, half of people's study hours are spent on MSN, gossiping, stoning, SMSing and looking at eyecandy. Or maybe it's like the people who stay back in the office everyday later than their colleagues, not because they're hard-working, but because they're unproductive.


I was in the Law Library to pick something up from someone and it struck me how comparatively empty the place was.

At that time of the exam period, the Central Library was messy, smelly and crowded, yet the Law Library still had space available; at least a fourth of its capacity. Furthermore, it was quiet as a real library should be: there were no "Quiet Area" signs, and you know when libraries designate "Quiet Areas", they've given up on the battle to enforce silence throughout the library (and probably the "Quiet Areas" too). Maybe the hallowed aura of the place had intimidated the mortal denizens of the Premier Institution of Social Engineering. Maybe the Law Library's emptiness was a well-kept secret. Perhaps the off-fresh paint smell of the place drove people away. Or the well-shielded library blocked handphone signals, so the SACSALs couldn't SMS or chat merrily away.

Yet, a cursory walk down the aisles revealed that the majority of the people in there were non-Law students - the hated SNAILS (Students Not Actually In Law School) - and a greatly disproportinate number were Ang Mohs. Where were all the Law Students, I wondered? Later I found out that the Year 2s and Year 3s were having exams.

In my short time there, I did witness a disturbing sight. I saw one girl, who looked like she was a law girl, wearing a Sarong Skirt - a garment not made of Sarong material but with a thicker cloth, yet gathered and tied around the waste like a Sarong. While sitting at a terminal, she untied her garment, pulled it up and then retied it, all in a blase fashion. Which meant she probably had something on underneath, but still - in public?


Quotes:

[On the girls on their toilet outing] They'll take quite long. 5 girls and 1 guy.

I'm too exhuasted after gallivanting with He Who Must Not Be Named blah blah for the whole day to do anything other than post these pictures he took:


Jiekai, the Dwarven Porter, carrying nw.t's CPU on his head, together with nw.t himself


Me, the 'Sleeping Buddha'