"Would those of you in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry." - John Lennon

***

Quotes:

His shoes were gorgeous. I had a dream about his shoes.

I'll rather go to Paris than London. London reminds me of sewers

I'll miss you when you leave... Come back and keep us company. [Me: You want me to be unemployed ah?... I'll come back and steal your fries] It's a small price to pay for your company.

[Me on xiaolongbao: I've finished my White Rabbit sweet. Now let me suck the juice from your buns.] What? Go away.

[Me: Chee Soon Juan was here just now.] Who's that? Some minister?

My last boyfriend was full- I want to study ***, I don't want to talk to an econs major about bases. [Me: Nice to see you're playing baseball.] I play softball. [Me: The area between bases is smaller.] Less effort

Even though they are severely underweight. [Me: Are you severely underweight?] Hmm? [Me: Just slightly.] [Student 2: She is severely underweight] I gained weight.

Beijing. The pollution is horrible. You never see a blue sky until you go to Australia... The blue is so blue, it'll blind you. Alright. Free advertisement for Australia. [Student: It's not that bad now]... Hong Kong. I have a daughter living in Hong Kong. She has 2 children. They're beautiful. No doubt about that... She should move to Australia.

[On building a casino] We don't know who's going to die, but mark my word, by the end of the project someone will have died. (words)

[On CBA and the cathedral argument] In economics, there is a price for everything, including being close to God.

I want to defend the claim that economists can help... Economists are not the enemy... [To me] I'm your friend, don't worry.

[To me] You lead an interesting life, but I wouldn't want to be you.

[To me] Your life is so interesting.

You know that most feminists are married. [Student 2: To another feminist... I used to think all feminists were lesbians. That's not true.]

Environmental problems from a different cultural background... I talked about Beijing a lot, and got into some problems this morning.

Hong Kong's success, in my view, depended too many on its exceptional circumstances (much)

[On post-1949] I'm not sure how many businessmen or industrialists moved to Macau. Somehow all the gangsters moved to Macau.

***, you've been an economics student for the past 2, 3 years. Have you ever encountered a theory that economic stability promotes economic growth? [Student: *silence*]

New Heaven (Haven)

They did an experiment in Vietnam, because this is not acceptable if you do it in the US. Human subjects' privacy.

This is the right thing to do it (do)

[On irrational survey responses] There are always weird people around... There are always going to be mean people and there are always going to be nice people as well.

If you get a raise, even if it's just to compensate you for inflation, you think it's because you're doing a good job.

I'm doing a 24 hour paper. I swore never to do another 24 hour paper. [Me: I found the ImPossibilities paper okay what.] That's because you're an Arts student. Science students just- [Me: You rather have a 2 hour paper than a 24 hour paper?]

If you submit your report in comic strips, that's fine. I don't have a problem with htat. But let's not go there.

[On a presentation of a paper] I don't understand still, but there's a lot of this paper that I don't understand, so it's not your fault.

Their frequencies [are] reported in Table III. Table III I forgot to cut [and paste into the slide]. Sorry.

In the essay, if you express yourself in a way that's confusing, that's okay because the source of the confusion is me. The basis of the confusion is me.

Have you seen a book on Kant?... [Me: If you steal a book on Kant, you must be quite sad.] That's what I said also... [Me: Maybe it was taken by the same person who took my Sex Bible] Someone who's interested in Sex and Philosophy. [Student 2: Someone who's interested in Sex and Philosophy. Sounds like a USP student.

Zhenyi. Elizabeth. Do you have a French name? [Me: Just pronounce it the French way - that's a French name already.] How do you pronounce 'Zhenyi' in French? [Me: No, not that bit.]

[On moral and non-moral wrongs and fines] When your husband or anything is worth billion dollars: 'A 100,000 is nothing to me'. I don't like your face, I slap you.

[On proof of the gender ratio in Arts] I never noticed the gender ratio. I look around and all I see is people. [Me: That's because you're a sociologist. You've been trained not to see the obvious]

[On the gender ratio in Arts] No wonder we cannot find husbands.

[Student on a Dopod: So do you have a proper handphone?] What do you mean? This IS a proper handphone. Damn you.

I do not want to go into details: 'What is globalisation', beause it's such a buzzword today.

[On the 80s] South Korean people were not allowed to travel abroad... Southern island of South Korea, Treasure Island, became Honeymoon Island.

[On supporting Honda which employs US workers vs IBM which employs foreign workers] If you are rational, you will say that. But we have emotions.

[On hedonic adaptation] Para'plair'gicks... 5 years on their reported life satisfaction isn't less than those who are normal. (paraplegics)

Suppose one of you has the unfortunate experience of having to go through a colonoscopy.

Sair'ter'ris paribus, would you like a long - not meaning extending long, but lasting a long time - colonoscopy or a short one? (ceteris)

[On screwing with people] They leave the colonoscope in place for about a minute after terminating the examination for about half the patients. Of course, they don't tell them that.

They're trying to scan the monks' brains... You're supposed to emit 'loving kindness'... You can't imagine doing it as an undergraduate thesis because it's too expensive. Each scan is tens of thousands of dollars.

Becoming rich is an exciting process, but being rich is normal... You hang out with even richer people... You actually feel worse.

Since this is the last lecture, I've to leave you with something encouraging... Life is not so bleak.

If you're thinking of California, you think of Baywatch, Malibu... It may be an illusion.

Dissonance reduction... If you think you're a smart person and smart persons don't make stupid decisions, you encode it as a pleasant experience. I put you through a very painful experience and you tell me how beautiful it is.

Most of the time we feel happy or unhappy. It's not because of our present experiences... We dwell on what happens yesterday, or what will happen in the future (happened)

Only the current moment is real. If you like the movie the Matrix, you can question this, but let's not go there.

[On Texams preferring sex to shopping] Intimate relations. I won't report about that... Something people like to do is at the top of the scale... The sample is actually female. *laughs from audience* Oh. I won't elaborate.

There's a presentation on BDSM [Male Student: I'd rather participate in it than go to a presentation on it...] Are you dominant or submissive? [Male Student: Submissive...] You can fit it into the framework of patriarchy [Female Student: You can't. It's an anomaly.] You can. Feminists fit everything into the framework of patriarchy.

I hate EViews. I hate everything related to econometrics... I'm being irrational, like a girl. I don't care... [Me: Ask a feminist.] Who cares, I like gender stereotypes. Don't you like gender stereotypes?

[On BDSM] I've a friend who's into it... [Me: Is she a top or a bottom?]... [Me: Is she attached?] No... She's quite good looking. [Me: I sense an opportunity for arbitrage here.]... She was saying that why she likes the idea is that only in the bedroom can you overturn the whole patriarchal system.

I'm still a virgin, thank you very much. My Catholic upbringing. [Me: Actually Catholics are the most depraved.] [Student 2: It's like a spring - the more you press the more it springs back.] [Me: That's why the priests go and rape the altar boys.]

[On Fisher, Aron and Brown] The romantic love experiment. It wasn't actually called that. I just gave it that name.

[On lap dancers] Women, the way they pick the males - they choose the drunk, the gullible guys.

[On scientific definitions of orgasm] After reading these 2, I still had no idea what they were talking about. So I moved on to the more poetic ones.

[On his finding Schaffer's theory of the female orgasm as Evolution's happy accident] Let me put myself in a dubious light and say I stumbled across this article accidentally.

I will conclude by offering a conclusion.

The main thing that struck me is that no one was interested in the male orgasm. (was)

Goo, 1987 (Gould)

[On the female orgasm as a byproduct] The feminists are not too happy, because women's sexual experience is just derivative of men's.

If you think orgasm is really - you should go to JSTOR and type 'orgasm'. There are 26,000 articles. People have done regressions on the length of orgasms. Kills the feeling.

[On homosexuals in Singapore] Homosexuals in Singapore are misunderstood. [Me: Can you tell me something I don't already know?] The image of homosexuals in Singapore is hypersexualised. They should stop protesting about the sex laws and focus more on integration into society. [Me: Excellent. But they'll call you homophobic.] [Student 2: They'll say you're a bloody bugger...] They'll convert you using extreme force.

The strangest thing about Hall is that people take a dump in the bathroom, in the shower cubicles.

[On female mate selection] You want someone who has high sexual and investment attractiveness. But as you know these people are not easily found, and they are hard to retain.

[On women being more fertile and looking for other men] Lastly, I'd urge you guys to observe yourselves and see if you're more attractive to other guys... If you pay more attention to other guys near ovulation.

More attractive women also has a greater sexual desire (have)

[On BDSM safe words] A popular example that I found online was 'George Bush'. What better word to get you down.

BDSM actually allows certain survivors of childhood sexual abuse to overcome their trauma.

[On BDSM] Those successful researchers are actually practitioners themselves.

Corprophilia. There's no evolutionary reason for it... We didn't evolve to eat shit. [Instructor: Some animals do... It might seem pathological to us. Ladies in the sewing circle.]

Some of the things primates do in zoos is they fling faeces at the visitors. Is that pathological?