Quotes:

[On the front door being locked and someone going in the backdoor] Maybe I'll just wait for him. Say hi. Everybody say 'hi' when he walks through that door.

In this class we're trying to bridge the ground between undergraduate and graduate level.

Some of you might think *** is an applied course. It is not. [Me *sotto voce*: What at NUS is applied?] [Someone: Econs lor. Applied Maths.]

Assessment. That's why you all are here. You want to know what I'll do to you.

The last 20%. I call it 'participation' but it's a catchall. I can put anything I want inside.

[On pop quizzes] I consider them friendly things.

[On consultation hours] Everytime I set aside a block for students they can never come in, so I don't bother anymore.

Next time you can be my encyclopedia... We have 'wikipedia'. You are 'gabrielpedia'.

[On me] You're a guy and you don't know who Gisele is? I'm disappointed in you.

I'm gonna pass around this roster around. (this)

[On the natural theological arguments for the existence of God] The arguments are interesting, but in previous times I've taught this course, I found that students did not find them interesting... I've had trouble convincing my students that they were interesting. That's probably because they're not convincing... Fodder for atheologians to make fun of.

These are some of the problems you might encounter when subjecting religious beliefs to philosophical analysis and scrutiny. *sotto voce* So watch out.

[On doing readings] I'm pretty good at telling. You can trick me sometimes.

It doesn't feel like a campus. Law students... they don't give off a vibe. It's like walking into an office... One of the reasons you teach in a campus is you want to feel the campus vibe... Law students drinking coffee.

To start the ball rolling, it's good to pick someone entirely arbitrarily.

[On being an Indian Muslim] For me, I practise Islam... I watch Bollywood. [Instructor: We all do.]

One branch of my family is from Taiwan, the other is from Mainland China. [Instructor: How're family reunions?]

[Instructor: Where do you get this idea of Heritage from?] National Education. Social studies.

When I go overseas and people ask me about Singapore, I end up talking about Chinatown, Little India - all places Singaporeans don't go to... [Instructor to part-Arab: You don't hang out at Arab Street?]

Don't give me cover pages. It's amazing... Students waste vast amounts of time and resources... I don't really care.

[Student: We have another class that has field trips too] That just means you have to choose which class to fail.

[On IT] I sent you all an announcement today. I'm very excited about this.

[To a girl] I like short, meaty girls... Like your height but fatter.

[On Citadel] Basically, the object of the game is to win.

Why're you walking around with that stick? [Student 2: You should just blog about it {then everyone will know}]

Why are you smiling? [Me: Entrepreneurship is such a buzzword.] Yeah. Nowadays businessmen are all entrepreneurs, but actually they're just businessmen.

[On the whiteboard] Can you read green colour at the back? [Students: Yeah] Let's change colour.

For psychology I'll write 'psycho'

[On basic Physics] The Engineers can take a little nap... Later on the Engineers will suffer when you come to all the qualitative stuff, so don't worry about them.

Question? Yeah you. I just pick up worried-looking faces to ask question. (pick)

cost-effect phenomenon (cause)

Before Newton, the world was believed to be magical and mystical. People thought, some people still think, that things happened for no good reason... If you see this cup picked up, it might be a ghost, but the ghost acts in a very precise way.

5 - 3 can also be written as 5 + (-3). I hope you all are not frightened by negative numbers.

Much of this abstract mathematics we won't be using. But it's good to know it once we use it.

[To someone on a science module] You're feeling like me in Cyberarts.

[To me] You're from Arts right. Long hair.

We have an exchange student from America. There they use feet, pounds and the unit for energy... I don't know.

All that energy in your head. You hear me talking for 2 hours. All that energy, where does it go?... Your head should be warm... Your head radiates heat... But we have air-conditioning here, so the heat is sucked out of this room and thrown outside, then we have global warming.

[Student on energy conservation: So your energy comes from your parents] My parents, then my grandparents, and ultimately to the Big Bang. There are small bangs, and the Big Bang.

If there're little tricks that would make the class easier, it's a good thing to point them out earlier in the course rather than near the end in the evaluation forms.

Anthropology - largely because they lack a rigorous methodology, but don't tell them that...

Very few people now who would call themselves structuralists are uner the age of 70... Largely because they have tenure and cannot be fired.

[On Pierre Bourdieu] Incredibly opaque, and beats around the bush in the worst tradition of French academia.

I'm sure some of you have encountered Heidegger, or will at some point, to your regret.

In the Social Sciences there's this lag between when someone comes up with a new idea in one discipline and when it becomes sexy to include it in another.

Trying to sell rainforest in Southeast Asia. it's only 14, 15 hundred years [old]. So don't believe all the hype... All the rainforest in Borneo and Malaysia. It's not Central Africa. So it's not true.

In every American university campus there's an urban myth that campuses are built to prevent students from being able to take over buildings... [On NUS] This is a very good example... Big quads where all the students can organise... You don't find that here... You're not supposed to understand the world around you when people are trying to manipulate you.

Ergonomics... Therefore people who religiously study supermarket layouts... Who's been to IKEA? Nightmarish place... The IKEA guy was another fascist. I don't buy anything from them.

[On a freeway mess, California] This is the worst place I've ever seen.

[On a picture of a Rio beach] I naturally checked to make sure there was no nudity. It'd be pixellated if there was.

There's a very good film. City of God. Has anyone watched it?... It's very violent, so don't tell your parents I told you to watch it.

I hope to hear from one of our government representatives on their policy of explicity shaping Singapore, which is very interesting.

Blog. It's such a horrible word... I'm embarrassed to say it out loud.

I'll try to get these on the ILV today. I can never get anything right. (IVLE)

[On lecture slides] Would you guys feel more comfortable if I posted this online?... You guys just want everything online, don't you? When was the last time you had to work for anything?.... You can't read it before lecture. It'll just steal my thunder.

[On being new] I didn't get my orientation. It was like: 'Okay, here's your classroom'

[On accountable/reputable sources] If you go to a website and there's [a] bright green background, things flash up... I don't want to have any 60 feet skeleton photos coming back and people using that.

[On seeing Screwed Up Girl] How is she screwed up?... Actually, yah.

[On an important rally] The funniest part was when he cracked a joke, then no one laughed.

[On a white horse] His bodyguard should just kill 2 birds with one stone and get a degree too.

Historical sociologists are very arrogant. They think the other sociologists are doing history, but they don't know it.

[On sociology] We're a social science, not a humanity per se. We cross over into the humanities once in a while to steal concepts.

graduate melting pot (gradual)

What kind of shared political values did the old Yugoslavia have?... Has anyone heard of Yugoslavia? [Me: Nothing, that's why it collapsed.]

Communism collapsed. The only holdouts: North Korea, Vietnam, China and to some extent, Singapore.