***
Mr Yong is a relief teacher in Raffles Guys School, and it seems all the Raffles Guys love him and are his groupies (pity):
Exhibit A:
i never expected i'd say this, but
CALEB YONG I DON'T WANT YOU TO LEAVE!!!
the guy who did justice to my english and lit (even though i was sleeping like, 75% of his lessons). and who said much corny stuff, e.g a rhyming couplet is a couplet that rhymes, why is your house on fire? because it has flames, etc.
i will miss him terribly so. sigh. i bet you, in like 3 days i'd probably give the ceiling another heart attack.
Exhibit B:
MR YONG YOU CANNOT LEAVE US WITH ***! PLEASE COME BACK! we know we're a rather annoying giggly bunch of girls but. DON'T LEAVE!
Unfortunately Mr Yong doesn't get it: Gabriel: I think it is fairly obvious it is girls. Kimberly? Melissa? I know RI is known for its vibrant alternative scene, but surely you couldn't have thought it all that vibrant?
Hee hee.
OTOH, one of the Raffles Guys:
"y'know.
till today, we tend to get the impression that most ri guys are gay.
i think it's the white."
Gay RI guys and Raffles Guys - good combination.
[Addendum: "i agree that we rafflesians of the fairer sex are much manlier than our
counterparts. (:"]
***
My first contribution to Recovering Christians: The bounty of New Creation
My favourite [testimony], though, was the following:
I won the first prize!
Dear Pastor,
The year started with a big bang for me. My husband and I were among the selected guests invited to a Volkswagon count-down party at the roof-top of The Esplanade.
When I received the invitation card and noticed that there was going to be a lucky draw conducted that night, I was leaping with joy as if I had won the first prize.
I had no idea what the first prize was but simply went ahead to thank the Lord in advance. However, I did remember telling my husband over dinner the day before that I would like to visit Europe with him and that God would make it happen because He heard our conversation!
Just before midnight, when the emcee was about to announce the first prize, I sensed deep down in my spirit that God had thrown this party just for me to receive my prize. My heart was pounding fast and I could not believe it when my name was announced!
I went on stage to collect my return air-tickets for two to Germany with a 3D2N stay at The Ritz Carlton Hotel! The trip includes a visit to the Volkswagon factory.
Praise Jesus for the child-like faith He encourages us to have. We are receiving blessings and joy in abundance as we enter the year 2005!
***
Someone: i can tug for free
dozens of jailbait
all wanting more CIP hours
Me: wah
tug and you give them more CIP hours? hahaha
Someone: unfortunately it doesn't quite work that way
the jailbait can scream and make a lot of noise
and when one tug i give hours, the rest will be thhrowing their hair in my face
a danger to my life
Me: they normally already scream and make a lot of noise
hahaha
Someone: this whole CIP thing is crap
***
Reverse Speech [Addendum: aka Backmasking]
"A number of studies have shown that expectations play a large role in what listeners hear in backward speech. For example, Vokey and Read listened carefully to recordings of Jabberwocky and the 23rd Psalm played backward. They identified 12 areas in the tapes where strings of tones suggested spoken messages (such as "saw a girl with a weasel in her mouth). Vokey and Read them asked their listeners to try to hear one of the specific messages that they "discovered." Only half of the messages listeners were asked to listen for were actually "in" the backward recording they were hearing (the other half were from the other tape). Listeners were likely to hear the messages for which some evidence was actually present in the tape they were hearing. They did not hear the messages that had been "found" in the recording that was not played.
To test the effect of expectation, Vokey and Read then asked listeners to try to hear other messages "discovered" in the backward recording they were asked to listen to. For example, if subjects had listened for "saw a girl with a weasel in her mouth" from Jabberwocky, they now listened for another phrase that there was evidence for--"I saw Satan." Participants were first asked if they had heard this message on their previous trials with the passage. Most had not, but they could hear it once they had been told to listen for it. Changing the mental set changed what messages people "heard" in backward speech. This type of biased listening is similar to a reverse speech analyst listening to backward speech for a message that he or she "knows" is there. For example, a therapist listening to tapes from a child who has been sexually abused knows to listen for reverse speech messages relating to the abuse. Anything in the backward speech that can be heard as sexual (or that can be interpreted as a metaphor relating to sexual acts) could then be detected. Other "messages" would be ignored.
Thorne and Himelstein further demonstrate how mental set can alter what a person hears in backward recordings. They played rock-and-roll songs backward for listeners. One group was told to record their reactions to the music. A second group was told to write down any words they heard in the music. A third group was told to listen for satanic messages. For the group recording its reactions, 5% of what they thought they heard was satanic; for the group listening for words, 18% of what they thought they heard was satanic; for the group listening for satanic messages, 41% of what they thought they heard was satanic. People's task set determined whether or not they interpreted a message as satanic.
Another factor in "wishful listening" is the belief in the phenomenon itself. Benoit and Thomas showed that listeners who believed in subliminal perception were more likely to "hear" a subliminal message in a jazz composition than were nonbelievers (there was no subliminal message in the music). Moreover, believers' moods changed in the direction suggested by the experimenter as a result of listening to the music (e.g., if they expected the music to induce a positive mood, their mood became more positive). Nonbelievers' moods did not change as a result of listening to the music.
The results of these studies suggest to us that what people "hear" in backward speech is a product of their belief in the phenomenon and their expectations about the content of whatever messages they are listening for. True, something is probably there in the signal that can be interpreted by the listener based on these expectations, but there is no evidence to show that what is in the stimulus is really "in" the stimulus and not merely in the imagination of the listener."
***
Japanese develop 'female' android - "Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1. She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner. She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe."
