"The only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there aren't any space aliens. We can't be the best that creation has to offer. I pray we're not all there is. If so, we're in big trouble." - Ellen DeGeneres

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Economics in NUS is more theory-based than empirical.

I asked around and it seems only Financial Economics has any empirical work (constructing a portfolio and seeing how it goes). Meanwhile I had empirical work for 3/4 of my Utrecht modules (2 involving regressions and 1 being a case study), and for the last we had to present journal articles.

Someone else also complained that he wanted to do more economics modules on exchange, since the NUS economics modules were very boring. I tend to agree.

Meanwhile, Andrew says that talking to those in NUS medicine, he finds that they are expected to know a lot (which isn't always the same as being a good doctor).


Econometrics II is so hard, and such a leap from Econometrics I. Argh. They should make it a level 4 module. I hate matrices - wth do we need to know how Eviews works?!

One lecturer used the example of someone named 'Siti' for something. He's new to NUS and presumably Singapore. Maybe he went for a "National Education for Expats" class.

There was this girl wearing fur-trimmed boots going up to just above her ankles in one of my lectures. Uhh.


Quotes:

[On skipping tutorials] Please don't tell us that your grandmother died for the 23rd time.

We will do this without explicityly encountering models (boo!) (written)

We're not going to work with models. I'm sure that will be very disappointing to many of you.

[On ranking rule of law] There is a culture of kay'st in India (caste)

homo'scare'di'city (homoscedasticity)

I do not do funny things. I only follow definitions.

[On estimators having small variance being good] Let's think about the inference problem in the dating game... You'd like to bring your girlfriend somewhere in Singapore. Orchard. NUS. East Coast. Malaysia. You have to predict which places she will want to go... Her volatility is very high. Sometimes she will want to go to East Coast, sometimes she will want to go to Malaysia. This is not good. The couple will eventually break up. (Malaysia?!)

Small least variance (smallest)

Standardised jet statistic (Z)

[Student: Do I have to answer any questions?] Pick who you want to answer... Here are the names and faces. Pick who you like or you don't like.

Multiplication of matrices is in the imagination of mathematicians.

The latest Oxford dictionary,from 2005, has the word 'irregardless' in it. But I will still not use it. It sounds vulgar to me. [Student: *sotto voce* Next time people will go around saying 'Irregardless you!']

111 = 15 x 7 + 6. You learn this in Primary 2. 111 / 15 = 7 + 6/7... I didn't go to Primary 2. I went straight to Primary 3. I forgot this.

Some kind of science fiction movie. You make a machine that can make a true contradiction. Then everything would be true and false.

Syllogisms are my least favourite topic. Sometimes I question why I teach them... If I threw everything out I wouldn't have a job.

Do they have corn dogs in Singapore? You do? Where do you get corn dogs in Singapore?

There's some more syllogisms in the tutorial, so you can go torture yourself at home.

bell tar (beta)

Don't worry too much about the maths. Think of it as another language.

You better know what Arsenal is. It's a way to earn cookie points.