My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

I swear I didn't tamper with this. And I've tried it on at least 5 different days. The result is always the same.

[Addendum: I've tried variations of the URL and claimed my blog on Technorati already.]

"If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had." - I. F. Stone

***

Quotes:

The difference between Keynesians and New Keynesians is that New Keynesians are newer than Keynesians.

There're only so many things you can put on top of a variable. So I used Y1 hat hat.

You always hear in the news: Japan is suffering from a liquidity trap... That's a question for you [to solve using the model]. It should be quite fun to solve.

Theoretically, we've come to the end of the course. No one's clapping. *audience claps* I was joking.

[On stealing her sister's body lotion] I'm very happy today. [Me: Why?] Because I smell nice... I think I should give you more of such comments. So you can give me the roll-eyes look. (roll your eyes at me)

Then you learn about ideologies or schools of thought. 'Ideology' sounds harsh. Schools of thought.

[On popular economics books] These books are easy to read. They don't have the math which drives you crazy.

I am not going to be sadistic for the final exam.

Don't go out of point. If the question asks you to write down the consumer's maximisation problem, write it down. Don't solve it. Do you understand? *laughs from audience*

[On consultation] Please feel free to drop by and see me. You can exploit me.

B wah'ng (one)

If you use the bad word (go backwards)

Why we need second strand (a second strategy)

This pass and this pass (part)

SPNE is combine'nation of strategies (combination)

you will damage (deviate)

jeweler (jewelry)

law risk individuals (low)

prat improvement (pareto)

There are uh'n burgers (n)

All used cars are salt (sold)

used cars honours (owners)

[On the final] If you have extra time, you can do anything you want. You can even draw pictures.

[During a talk on careers for Economics graduates] Can I see how many people are intending on a career in financial serices? Maybe 50%. And the rest are - sleeping.

Flexible prizes (prices)

Today I am very privileged because, number 1, I'm the only one here [on the panel] not wearing a tie, and two, I'm the one with the shortest work experience. My Ministry wanted to send someone young.

A public sector economics will always be in fashion. For the ladies, imagine that you will always be in fashion.

If you talk about, if you ask me about work - it's confidential. *flashes 'Confidential' on Powerpoint*

If I ask you to summarise the work of a government economist, I hope you won't say 'Lies, lies and more lies'. I was actually asked this... We're honest. We don't fudge statistics.

[Me on job requirements: Is there any job in which you don't have to work well with others?] Academia. Teachers - your students have to work well with you.

I'm going to do the non-civil service thing. This is the new civil service thing. I put my email there.

Ukrainia (Ukraine?)

The corpse of being the last speaker is that the other speakers have exhausted your patience. (cost)

My children asked me: What do you want me to do when I grow up? I told them: Do something you are interested in, do something you are good at and get a job with a decent salary. If you work at the IMF you will get a decent salary... If you want to become very rich, go to DBS.

You are asked to update the macroeconomic spreadsheet for Turkey. You say: Wow, this is easy. No indefinite integrals and calculus... The kind of thing I had to do at University.

[On being a small fry as a fresh junior officer despite having a PhD and being a specialist] In the IMF there are hundreds of people with PhDs, so you need to get used to that. *audience laughs*

You have just finished your mission for the IMF... You are very happy. You got to fly in Business Class. It's very different from what you are used to... You spend 2 weeks in a 5 star hotel... You work very very hard, there is no room for mistakes.

[On getting into the IMF] 'I really want the job'. Some people say 'I need the job'. Some people are more persistent. 'I deserve the job'.

Welcome to Hell - A Christian group in Texas has devised a unique method of redirecting wayward teens off the highway to hell and on to a more righteous path.

"Things started getting particularly gruesome, in a Hammer horror sort of way, in the abortion scene, when cold, heartless doctor characters used an outsize pair of tweezers to pull unidentified bloody animal parts out from between a teenage girl's legs. (This trick, incidentally, is straight out of Keenan Roberts' outreach kit.) Having extracted the foetus - "America's version of the Holocaust," the devil narrators tell us - the doctors then manage to let the girl die too, through inattention. They act like it's just another day at the office.

In the show's most overwrought scene, an alcoholic, adulterous, porn-addicted litigation lawyer who has just secured freedom for a known paedophile stabs his wife rather than have her discover he has been molesting their daughter. The daughter then shoots her father, retreats to her room and slits her wrists, spilling fake blood over the floor, next to her bible."

***

There is a "Centre for Increasing Returns and Economic Organisation" at Monash University. Uhh.

Just for the heck of it, I should try using a Mac for a week and note down what I dislike (or even - gasp - like) about it. Of course, this won't faze the Mac whores (for the benefit of My Little Bird, I will note that there is a distinction between a Mac user and a Mac whore), who will claim that I haven't been using a Mac for "long enough", since their definition of "long enough" is until the person in question grows to prefer the Mac to Windows.

I was expounding my theory of why Malaysian prata is nicer than even the one at Phoenix Hotel (the Malaysian smell, and the fact that some people like unsanitary eating conditions). 'I was just thinking: What have the Malaysians done to you?... You're obviously very affected.'

We have 'chat points' in the library. We should have 'sleep points' as well so people can sleep without disturbing or displacing others. But then those would quickly be filled, so.

I should set up a squatting agency matching people who want to squat in school with those who are willing to rent out their rooms.


Every semester, you'll see people dressing freakily to promote their bashes. I saw some on Monday and Ban Xiong suggested it was for Halloween - a brilliant suggestion, so I asked the guy if that was the case. Unfortunately, it was for some bash in December. Later someone suggested that he'd go for bashes like this - if they were held in graveyards.

Usually, the promoters' hair (the girls at least) will make it look like they've been zapped by Doktor Frankenstein's machine, and their faces like they've smashed them into bowls of multi-coloured chalk dust (ie Like the Rafflesian Spirit, but in more than one colour). I'm not normal, but even normal people are put off by such grotesque images - no one wants to see Goths Gone Wrong at a bash; there is something called Negative Publicity.

The fun continues on Young Republic (following on from this previous post):


Me:

>Your proposition is that laws should be enacted based on the "harm
>principle". Conservatives generally reject this proposition because it
>draws too small a circle and fails to outlaw many acts that are obviously
>immoral to the majority of human beings, Christian or non-Christian,
>religious or secular.

I don't know what world you live in, but it definitely isn't ours.

Oddly enough, anthropologists have found that morality varies greatly among different cultures. In fact, the only universal taboo is incest.

But I guess all of the other cultures we don't like are decadent, corrupt and immoral so we can ignore them.


>A better proposition is that laws should be enacted based on humanity's
>conscience.

200 years ago, humanity's conscience told it that slavery was acceptable. 500 years ago, humanity's conscience told it that it was acceptable to sequester women. 1000 years ago, humanity's conscience told it that witches were evil and had to be hunted down and persecuted.

Even today, many (most, at some subconscious level) people's conscience tells them that people of other religions/races are inferior.

Funny how our unchanging conscience varies so much with time.


B:

If you want to argue that it's all about the conscience, then I would hope you can substantiate some form of universal conscience, something everyone would agree on i.e. that incest is universally reviled and a stain on our conscience (and if we don't know about it?). If not, it just sounds like another rendation of Universal Absolute Morality and we know how that
one turns. Alternatively, if we accept that what we term 'conscience' is very much framed and nurtured by our own particular social and cultural norms i.e. positive morality, then we have the same original issue that the post-modernist brings up. Since they each have their own subjective value. And given that, how do we best accomodate all the prevailing viewpoints
without infringing on the capabilities of the minority to live as they will? That's where Liberalism comes in, building a workable system of tolerance. All the rest is fluff and strawman argumentation about Liberals and Liberalism.


A:

I do not believe that laws should be based primarily on the harm principle. So pointing out the harm in incest is irrelevant. Incest should be outlawed because it goes against society's conscience. And, in a way, going against conscience is harmful because it destroys one's very soul.

If you and your liberal friends really believed in the harm principle, you would be trying to enact laws preventing women over 40 from having children. But you are not. Because your beliefs are inconsistent. Which is really typical of liberals - always trying to point out inconsistencies in the Bible and in Christian beliefs (there are none, of course, except when one insists on superficial interpretations) while ignoring their own inconsistencies.


A:

If incest is outlawed (according to liberals) based on the harm principle, it is because babies born of an incestuous relationship tend to be physically or mentally handicapped in some way. Hence, the harm. I am arguing that the harm principle doesn't make sense all the time because if you banned incest on those grounds, you would have to ban other actions that resulted in the same harm (or had the same risk of resulting in those harm), ie. women above 40 giving birth. I am absolutely not, as D seems to have misunderstood, advocating us banning women over 40 from having children. I am saying that the harm principle would require us to do that in order to be consistent, and that is precisely why the harm principle makes no sense whatsoever.

Incidentally, you never see any liberals arguing that incest with contraceptives should be made legal. Probably because their deepest conscience forbids it. Nothing could justify one sleeping with his mother. Not even contraceptives. (Ask, for example, a liberal to announce to a public gathering of 100 people that he thinks it is okay for one to sleep with his mother. He wouldn't dare.)


You misunderstand and misrepresent me, Gabriel. At no point did I assert that humanity's conscience was unchanging. It is changing. That is the natural result of man's fallen nature.

However, my point is that the prevailing conscience should nevertheless be the basis for the law simply because it is the safest and the most democratic course for society. A Christian bases his conscience on the Bible and makes his case for it. A Muslim on the Koran and makes his case for it. And the liberal on the harm principle and makes his case for it. And the resulting outcome from democratic processes is the law.

My point is that just as you think the Bible is not the basis for universal truth, I also think the harm principle is not the basis for universal truth (I have illustrated why I think so in another email, where I pointed out the inconsistencies of the harm principle). And since we are neither of us convinced by the other party, the safest option for us as a society to take is to make the prevailing conscience the law. The prevailing conscience, of course, during the puritan revival in England was very different from that during the hippy age in the states. But it is, nevertheless, the most sensible route for society. Now that doesn't stop me from advocating Biblical values because I genuinely think they are right. You have the right to oppose me of course, since we are a free society. But so have I the right to oppose your harm principle even if you think you are genuinely right. This is all part and parcel of natural debate in society. And the person who ultimately convinces society that his standard of morals is more, well, moral will win the day. And I think that is a sensible route for us to take.


C:

A [on incest]:

Would you care to read what has just transpired on this list on this topic? I have changed my mind and now think that, subject to provision for undue influence (caveat how that would be enforceable), the genetic consequences of incest are not a reason for criminalisation. Apparently, though, I do not exist, nor does Gabriel who in front of your very eyes persuaded me to this point of view, because "you never see any liberals arguing that incest with contraceptives should be made legal."


Me:

>If you and your liberal friends really believed in the harm principle, you
>would be trying to enact laws preventing women over 40 from having
>children. But you are not. Because your beliefs are inconsistent.

???

A slightly increased likelihood of birth defects does not equate to definite harm. Going by your logic, abortion should be banned as well. As would driving cars (pedestrians being knocked down - ooh, harm!!!)


>Which is really typical of liberals - always trying to point out
>inconsistencies in the Bible and in Christian beliefs (there are none, of
>course, except when one insists on superficial interpretations)

Unfortunately, due to man's fallen nature, it is impossible to interpret the bible non-superficially. Pity, that.


>You misunderstand and misrepresent me, Gabriel. At no point did I assert
>that humanity's conscience was unchanging. It is changing. That is the
>natural result of man's fallen nature.

Right. So although humanity's conscience keeps changing and we have no idea, due to man's fallen nature, what an appropriate conscience would be (indeed, dare I say, one corresponding to divine sanction and morality), it is still "a better proposition [enacting] laws... based on humanity's conscience" than based on the harm principle, which would provide a more invariant base
of law from which to work.

In fact, if man possesses a fallen nature, since "In [creating] their own ideas about what laws and morals should be, liberals have a tendency of going against the very nature of humankind", we can conclude that the liberals you so despise are in fact coming up with laws you would approve of (vis a vis any current/hypothetical ones derived from humanity's conscience). Bravo!


>my point is that the prevailing conscience should nevertheless be the basis
>for the law simply because it is the safest and the most democratic course
>for society.

Democracy and majoritarianism aren't the same. In the former, the rights of minorities and individuals are safeguarded. As for safe, how something that will likely lead to different sections of society fighting to marginalise and annihilate each other, and which is subject to great variance across space and time can be called safe is totally beyond me.


>My point is that just as you think the Bible is not the basis for universal
>truth, I also think the harm principle is not the basis for universal truth

Good for you. The thing is that most people, regardless of religion, accept at least some form of the harm principle in determining laws (note the distinction between "laws" and "universal truth" - your "universal truth" can have been that the world was spawned on the back of a Giant Turtle, but this doesn't mean that the law should forbid us from drinking turtle soup [yum...]).


>And since we are neither of us convinced by the other party, the safest
>option for us as a society to take is to make the prevailing conscience the
>law.

I'm sure you will agree that if the prevailing conscience dictates that fundamentalist christians should be burnt at the stake, you will agree that this is very "safe", even if it will lead to religious riots, international condemnation and general mayhem as our society is riven by internecine conflict.


A:

When I said no liberals argue that incest with contraceptives should be made legal, I meant no liberal in a significant political position argues it as a genuine policy option. A lot of incest has been reported in the United States, and some of it goes on with the use of condoms. But nobody is championing their "rights" for some strange reason.


>Democracy and majoritarianism aren't the same. In the former, the rights of
>minorities and individuals are safeguarded. As for safe, how something that
>will likely lead to different sections of society fighting to marginalise
>and annihilate each other, and which is subject to great variance across
>space and time can be called safe is totally beyond me.

The reason we protect minority rights is because the conscience of the majority thinks it immoral to not protect minority rights. So that still fits perfectly well into the proposed framework.

Also, I do not consider the "right" of an incestuous couple to have protected sex a "minority right" worthy of protection. And neither do most people. I would like to see a liberal put his money where his mouth is by making a genuine attempt to convince the electorate that incest with contraceptives should be protected. It is easy to rant and rave with beautiful theories on an email group. But that's generally where it ends. The liberals will not make any attempt to try to translate their theories into legislation.

I propose two reasons for that: 1) the liberals don't genuinely believe in what they rant and rave on email groups about, their deepest conscience tells them that incest is still inherently wrong no matter the circumstances; 2) they know they don't even have a minute chance of convincing the electorate because their theory is at odds with the conscience of the electorate (which still vincidates my original proposition that conscience should be the basis for the law, not the harm principle).

If the first reason is right, then the liberals are hypocrites. If the second is right then the liberals are living in their own world and their views are alienated from the public's views.


It is not quite accurate to say that I don't believe in the harm principle in any form. I believe that the harm principle is a poor principle upon which to solely base morals and, in turn, a poor principle upon which to solely base laws.

The harm principle can play a role, but only inasmuch as it is part of the conscience to begin with. The harm principle is only a subset of the conscience, meaning, there are acts that the conscience dictates against but the harm principle does not, but all acts that the harm principle dictates against, the conscience also does.

So my point is, as pointed out before, the harm principle draws too small a circle. It ignores the conscience on many matters (such as incest) and hence, is not the best concept to use when we think about the law. Instead, if we use the conscience as the basis for the law, the harm principle would be included but so would acts that society's conscience obviously prohibit (such as incest with or without contraception).


B:

The real problem I have with your laws and morality based on conscience bit is that it's hollow, like Intelligent Design. What is it principles, how is it formulate, who formulates it, how does it translate into law, why should it be given such a primacy etc. It doesn't say anything. Change it to any word and it might still fit.


C:

A,

It's possible to think that incest should be legal without thinking the issue particularly significant or deserving of the resources that would be required to campaign for its legalisation. Ultimately, the number of people involved in incest is so small and often so unascertainable and so controversial, it's not surprising it doesn't garner a whole lot of support. Whether or not those who support the cause are sincere.

People have opinions without being willing to expend effort on political action all the time - or is everyone actually really insincere about the convictions (which often reflect how they make decisions in other spheres of life, or treat their friends and acquaintances)? We don't meet incestuous people very often, but I'm willing to bet the people who think incest is okay would treat any incestuous people they meet better than would people who think incest isn't okay. Or does that count for nothing?

Moreover, I continue to have reservations about the efficacy of restrictions on incest in preventing abusive sex from taking place, a form of doubt which has nothing to do with the immorality of incest per se. You might of course choose to regard this as merely my 'disguise' for my 'innate conscience' telling me that incest is simply wrong, and everything else I claim to say and think and feel is merely an escape from some ineffable inner guidance which you can understand and interpret far better than I can. I might then be tempted to tell you to fuck off, you patronising dick.


The full extent of the interlocution can be viewed on Young Republic.

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"I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed." - James Thurber

***

Quotes:

[On a letter on pricing at King's Cross Station] I was reading the newspaper... I'm sorry, I'm digressing. But it's still early in the morning... A bottle of water cost more than a bottle of milk... I'm drinking lime juice.

[On vehement objections to Evolutionary Psychology] I feel the need to make the case, because people will knock it down anyway.

[On faux perxeptions of a lack of hierarchies in meerkats] There was a 'Meerkats United' program, dubbed over with David Attenborough's voice.

[On status and sexual access in men] You're not going to tell me that Pop Stars and Footballers... are less advantaged in this respect than people like you and me.

[On going through the midterm] Some of you have done very well. If you want to leave earlier, it's ok.

These arts girls, they ask stupid questions [in class]. Just google it! 'It helps me to think]. [Me: You know women. Or some women. Or most women.] Arts students. [Me: NUS students. What's it like in Science?] In science they don't ask questions. They just sit there. [Me: Which is worse?] Arts. If you don't ask questions you don't disrupt the lesson.

[On bad experiences at his alma mater] RI sucks... I'm sending my kids to Ahmad Ibrahim. They're also 100.

ECA points are useless... My friend has 100 ECA points... [Me: You know Dean's Listers get 8 ECA points?] President of Econs Soc only gets 10 ECA points. I switch with you lah. [Me: It's easier to become Preisent of the Econs Society than to be a Dean's lister.]

Business students are so fucking, fucking lazy... It's their core module, they don't give a damn. I think you can put any econs student there, they will get first class honours... Even ***.

I read your blog so often, my girlfriend said if she doesn't know me, she'll think I have a crush on you. I said: Are you kidding? You haven't seen Gabriel.

[On 'The Graduate'] 'Hard times'. Sounds like a porn movie. [Girl: I was thinking of Charles Dickens, the novel.] I skipped it.

You meet people and you tell them you're a psychologist. 'Can you read my mind?' To which the proper answer is 'yes'. I used to go into long explanations. Now I just say 'yes'.

Mind-body dualism. It's bedevilled psychology ever since... Descartes is really a bad guy in my book because he made this mind-body duality... [Student: It's not his fault. It was his student who made the distinction, not him]

I'll have to read Descartes again. [Student: I'll show you my honours thesis] Nono. Life is short.

The supplementary material here is not data. It's a piece of Alexander the Great.

[On r = -0.88, p < 0.0001, for a relationship between lower male life expectancy and higher homicide rates in 77 Chicago neighbourhoods] If you had data like this in a correlational study, you'd be cheering all the way to the publisher's.

[On shortening snout lengths and rising forehead sizes] Lastly, something I like very much. The evolution of the teddy bear. This research is made possible because in Cambridge there is a teddy bear museum. Teddy bears seem to have undergone evolution, presumably as a result of customer pressure.

If I'm not mistaken, Brahma does not have an anthropromorphic form... Unlike the Christian god. He looks like Santa Claus. With less fat.

[Hindu student:] We have Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. The Creator, the Destroyer and the... [Non-hindu student: Protector] There're too many. Sometimes I forget too.

[On the cult of the Virgin Mary] But then it became an iconoclastic itself. (icon)

[On oppression of females in religion and feminist theory] You guys feel oppressed in any way, in your religion?... Getting the shorter end of the stick. Not really? That's the point right.

[On quoting from Milton's Paradise Lost] You guys like to know how angels make love?

This is NUS. The best university in the region. That's why filipino boys have to come here.

[On term papers] Generally good. Why do you guys look so sad?

[Me on an essay:] A+ slash perfect (quoted on my No 1 fan's insistence)

[On the exam] It's a really really surreal 2 hours. Anything can happen in the 2 hours.

If you see me around, you can say hi. You know how graduate students are. We're very lonely creatures.

Much Donald's (McDonald's)

[On security guards in the Philippines and Santo Nino dressed as one] The interesting thing is they'd be armed with shotguns, and M16s, and grenades. And toothpicks. No, not grenades.

[Me on Santo Nino dressed as a police officer:] So much for 'The Prince Of Peace'

The semester is coming to an end. [The] class size is becoming smaller.

I think I lost the hair pin you gave me... [Me: I've only lost 1 so far] Because you're not a girl.

[On a model] We need to torture the software a bit more. We need to squeeze. Squeeze the computer.

[On variables in a regression] It's like giving a child so many candies and cookies. Too many things involved.

[On a time fixed effect model] In 78, you're female. In 85, you're still female. Most likely.

[On brevity] Don't write the null wrong. This is not sociology. Don't write too many things. This is statistics.

If you just write 'We should include state effects [in the regression to avoid omitted variable bias]' You get zero marks, 99% significance. [Student: What about the 1%?]

"Save lives. Kill all the stray cats currently on the streets so you won't have to kill their descendents in 2 generations' time"

***

Someone: you are the only joker who starts msn conversations with a deluge of philosophical thought, moral and social analysis and commentary as well as advanced musings on the gender equalities and the state of our society politically, economically and spiritually

Someone else: There's a new bash called sashay. Looks like posting in your blog stops pple from giving odd names

***

[Buss on the base-rate and conjunction fallacies] The extensive literature showing how foolish people are is, of course, great fun.

Birth order differences show up strongly among scientists: Later borns tend to be strong advocates of scientific revolutions; first borns tend to strenuously resist such revolutions (Sulloway, 1996)

Maybe I'll put up more choice quotes and snide remarks by him after the quiz. Or the exam.


"According to Feuerbach, religion is harmful because it divests humanity of the full knowledge of its moral power and ethical qualities by locating them in God alone. Love, for example, is for Feuerbach divine in itself, not because it is a "predicate" of God. Ethical relations for Feuerbach are as well religious per se, and life "in its essential, substantive relations" is "of a divine nature". However, by allocating human possibility and achievement in God, humanity deprives itself of a "genuine sense of truth and virtue", and remains in an immature, humanly incomplete state."

"Students of religion sometimes expect or ven hope that academic neutrality means that what they learn about the variety of religious phenomena will not affect their beliefs in any way. But simply because the academic study of religion is neutral vis-a-vis competing religions' claims does not mean that it is value-free. The study of religion can never be value-free because the very existence of the discipline depends on this value: the development of a worldview that cherishes a neutral position vis-a-vis the various religions as well as an ability to see the internal coherence and logic that empowers each of them. This value is emphatically rejected by at least some segments of all major religions."

"Your proposition is that laws should be enacted based on the "harm principle". Conservatives generally reject this proposition because it draws too small a circle and fails to outlaw many acts that are obviously immoral to the majority of human beings, Christian or non-Christian, religious or secular.

A better proposition is that laws should be enacted based on humanity's conscience. The idea that something is wrong because the conscience tells us so is sometimes rejected by liberals. Some liberals even reject the existence of a conscience. But that simply goes to show how disconnected most liberals are from the general human being.

My grandfather was not a Christian. In fact, he'd probably never heard of Jesus or the Bible throughout his life. And he could hardly be described as a religious man in any sense of the word or in association with any religious tradition. However, my grandfather's conscience told him that incest was wrong. And people inside his society as well as outside his society in other parts of the world throughout history also had their consciences tell them that incest was wrong. This has very little to do with the "harm principle" because the advent contraceptives did not change the voice of the conscience (ie. the harm was done away with but not the immorality).

In create their own ideas about what laws and morals should be, liberals have a tendency of going against the very nature of humankind."


I am rendered almost speechless.

I don't know what world he lives in, but it definitely isn't ours.

Civilization Anonymous

Rob T.: By the time I got to the industrial age, I was a full-blown junkie. There were times when I'd play the game 2, 3 days straight. Wouldn't get up to eat, wouldn't get up to go to the bathroom.

Off-camera: You didn't go to the bathroom for 3 days?

Rob T.: I said I didn't get up. *starts crying*

...

*Guy in chair rocks back and forth muttering "One more turn"*

Edna N. (old woman): I thought I was able to handle the power. I've always been a kind and gentle person. But when I was finally able to split the atom, I built me a bomb and I dropped it on every mo-*beep* who got [in] my way!

Voiceover: They come from all walks of life. Doctors, lawyers, politicians - all with one thing in common.

...

George W. (face pixellated): I was a big fan of the, the religious aspect of Civ IV. A big fan. Dating back to the Church in Rome. Uh, did you know that they spoke Latin back then?... Latin. I love the sound. I love all the Xs. I love that J. Lo! She's got, she's Latin.

...

Sid M.: Hi. My name is Sid.

Everyone: Hi Sid.

***

I still prefer Alpha Centauri, though. It had more character.

Distinct factions with personalities, better quotes (narrated better too, despite Leonard Nimoy), fungus, mindworms, sea cities, customizable units, espionage, technologies like Monopole Magnets, REAL terraforming (who needs windmills and cottages when you can construct thermal boreholes and drill aquifers?), nerve stapling, a Planetary Council which could do a few funky things, and societal decisions like adopting Eudaimonia. Oh, and it didn't have 7 religions which are essentially all the same (it'd have been nice to rule as a Confucian Despot, oppressing my people under the guise of 'Confucian Values'), which might be why there's no concept of religious conflict (damn, I want to start a Holy War!).

But at least there's a 200 page manual.


If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself.

-- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"

"What does it mean to say religion is a cultural system? Geertz offers an answer to this question in a single, heavily packed sentence. Religion is:

(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

Anthropologists, of course, are not obligated to be brief, clear and simple."

***

Power Ranger T-Rex Pet Costume - Dress your pet as the Red Dino Thunder Ranger. Erm.

Malaysia: Government supports plan to get non-Muslims to wear tudung - "THE Government has okayed a ruling by International Islamic University (IIU) which compels non-Muslim students to wear the tudung, saying the rule was not religious in nature."
Considering that a ruckus would be kicked up if Muslim students were compelled to wear a uniform with a hint of religious significance... I'm also thinking of the Red Cross vs Red Crescent controversy.

Piggy banks 'offend UK Muslims' - "British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims. Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising"

My Little Bird concatenates the following picture: Parody picture - "The LORD shall rejoice in his works"

Rome bans goldfish bowls, orders dog walking - "The city of Rome has banned goldfish bowls, which animal rights activists say are cruel, and has made regular dog-walks mandatory in the Italian capital, the town’s council said on Tuesday."

***

Someone: Floyd's back on Arts Central!

Me: who is he?

Someone: some UK guy who does outdoor cooking... so it's like a cooking cum travel show...
and he's excessive with red wine

Me: oh that guy
he drinks some then pours into the food right
bastard.

Someone: haha
more like he says he has to add red wine
adds a lil
drinks a whole lot
adds more
and drinks more in celebration of whatever...
haha

***

Some people prescribed an anti-depressant drug have found an unexpected side effect: they have an orgasm when they yawn. The drug clomipramine usually elevates mood and boosts physical activity and appetite. However, the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry reports four patients on the drug had orgasms on yawning.

"There is a small subset of people who are affected this way," commented Dr. Martin Godfrey, a London GP who has prescribed the drug. "I understand they find this side effect quite pleasant."

One woman who took clomipramine told researchers it cured her depression but she wanted to go on taking it because of its peculiar properties. She found she could experience an orgasm even by deliberate yawning. And a man who had also taken the pills said he was "highly satisfied" with the drug's usefulness.

Around five per cent of clomipramine users report the side effect, though for most people the drug inhibits the ability to reach orgasm. The New Scientist says that the drug's users have been comparing notes on the Internet and speculating on its unusual consequences: people who experience it would presumably seek out the most boring person they could find at parties.

Quotes:

[On a faux explanation for anorexia] There was a theory going around. Females who were afraid of sex, so they made themselves unattractive.

[Student on a copy of Time Magazine dated 5 days in the future: Is this the latest issue?] [Me: It's dated in the future, so you're cutting edge.] Yes, that's one of the most irritating things about Time magazine.

Interesting fellow, Geertz. But I say that every week [about the theorists].

If Geertz wants to study me, and I say I'm pretty, he'll say, "Yes, you're pretty".

When your friend interviews you for a class, you use more high-falutin language, you sound more intelligent than normally.

[On Clifford Geertz] Personally I think he lost track, really, while doing his research, of what he wanted to do.

penny tense (penitence)

I shall reiterate... you will not pass the exam if you do not study at least 4 theorists.

Today is the 19th of October. The 18th was a very special day for many of you, when you unleashed your term paper[s] on the world of academia.

If we can measure a book's success by the amount of criticism it receives... it's quite safe to say that the Da Vinci code is a success... I'm not prescribing it as a text for this class, but I'm sure a lot of you would be happy if I did.

[On Carol P. Christ] Let's go back to Christ. Not Jesus, of course, but Carol.

Clearly, not all feminist scholars are women, not all women are feminist scholars.

The film we are about to see is called Flores Para Guadalupe. *Laughs from audience* Why is that funny?

[On being attached] After I was with him, my hair and nails started growing faster.

I put this question in the last exam, and it worked. Many people did poorly... As long as you write down the hypotheses clearly, you get full marks. My questions are always simple.

[On a high chair at the lecturer's area] What's the high chair there for? For babies to lecture us.

[Finding a new way to repeat a platitude] If these things are new to you, then I'm so worried.

I need to tack (take)

A lot of people did poorly in the midterm. You're not the only one.

[On writing on the OHT] My font looks like Times New Roman.

[On moving to the next graph] Let's go.

I suspect you take down quotes to laugh at people... So irritating. Sometimes I read your blog, I can hear you sniggering.

[On an error] No wonder some of you were laughing. I guess it's the first time you've seen an upward sloping demand curve.

[On scoring in exams] As an economist, your responsibility is to maximise your points for the time you have... I presume your utility is determined by your points. You have to maximise your utility function.

If you ever panic during an exam, please stop your exam. Close your eyes, take a nap. Or go out of the exam hall and take a walk... It sounds very funny, but it's not a joke... Walk very slowly out of the exam hall... Stop laughing. It's really really not funny.

Since it is in eager (an integer)

[On slack staff] *** has already left. It's 12[pm]. Modern day Cinderella. In the morning some more.

[On asymmetric information and uncertainty] I don't know what questions to set for the exam. I don't know how good my students are.

fail game (fair)

[On flipping a coin] probably point 5 [probability that] we can get a hat (head)

von Neumann-Morgan'stick (Morgenstern)

risk lahvee (loving)

We will show that latter (later)

Asked to pee for buying insurance (pay)

[On dealing with insurance salesman] At first I buy. But then they keep coming. So I just tell them: I am risk levy (bought some, kept, told, loving)

[On himself] *** is a 22 year old virgin. Why is everyone silent.

Number of recessions is the number of trouts (troughs)

I usually hate buying presents for people: usually people buy them for the sake of buying them because some occasion imbued with mystical significance is coming up. My dislike of present-giving is compounded by my distaste for shopping and the absence of an adrenaline rush during the hunt; unlike my sister, I don't enjoy getting gifts for people. And once you open the floodgates, you feel obliged to shower everyone (or at least a lot of people) with your generosity, which multiplies the aforementioned problems.

A good solution on the part of the gift-giver, of course, is for people to get others presents only when they find ones that jump out at them as being suitable for the intended recipient. For example, in 2003 I got Bob this DIY cut-and-fold structure (you cut some cardboard and assemble it into a structure) with his name - "Bob" - on it, for him to occupy himself when he went to Wallaby; a very suitable gift I might add. I suppose ardent gift givers don't do this because suitable gifts would seem to them to jump out from every shelf, and also because it's more convenient to be prompted by the approach of a special occasion - it formalises the whole business of gift-giving.

What the last proposal cannot solve is the issue of the mismatch of preferences, which results in an annual deadweight loss of $4 billion in America (Joel Waldfogel, The Deadweight Loss of Christmas, 1993). Since I have little talent at guessing preferences, the mismatch is probably greater than the 10% measured in the study.

Really infuriating things can also happen (once I got Screwed Up Girl the same thing as someone else, and got really pissed off. No guesses for how this further disposed me towards present buying).

The best thing to do if an occasion is coming up for which people are going to give you presents is, like my No 1 fan (blah blah), to put up a wishlist. Though not many people ended up doing that – I suppose they preferred surprising her.

As for me, whenever people ask me what I want, I tell them nothing. I am a simple man with simple needs, and present buying is a poor proxy for what you're really trying to measure or show (even if subconsciously). That probably means I live in a world which seems heartless and devoid of affection. Pity.

"The wages of sin are unreported." - Unknown

***

For some reason, my Yahoo account got deleted. Very helpfully, they told me that it was because of one of the following:

(a) where a violation of the TOS or other incorporated agreements or guidelines has occured, (b) in response to a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), or (c) extended periods of inactivity

You'd think that at least they would have the courtesy to tell me why they deleted my account.

Finding no way to get to the account deletion people (they probably don't want people bugging them, as now), I did a search for "deletion" in their help database, and getting no results, fired off an email in response to "how did the search fail you?". I do not expect it to be answered ever though, given how opaque their system is - I didn't even get a support ticket.

The form I filled out didn't ask me for an email address so they could get back to me; they don't even bother to send out a "We have received your feedback. Your feedback is very important to us. We apologise if we are unable to get back to you", which tells you something about Yahoo's attitude towards customers (it might be better if I was a paying one - I don't know).

I think the only substantive loss I have suffered is with the Yahoo Groups listing - I only recovered a small part of my list (then again if I can't remember them they're probably not important). Oh, and anyone who still sends email to gssq@geocities.com or who mistakenly sends it to gssq@yahoo.com. Oh well.


To forestall the inevitable trolling by Mac whores, who automatically blame all of PC users' computer problems on their PCs (even irrelevant ones), and conveniently ignore any of their own (which sounds very familiar), I will observe that saying you should switch to a Mac to avoid computer problems is like saying amputees don't get frostbite. And that's assuming Mac users don't get problems, which they do. So maybe a better analogy is saying castrated men cannot get AIDS.

My brother in law claimed that my occasional picking up or hair accessories from LT floors was of a level of cheapskateness (actually it's more inanity) equivalent to crashing in friends' dorm rooms for a whole month. His faux theory of moral/political equivalence was at work again (see previous entries).

I was saying that in dominant party states, it is unjustifiable for the dominant state to use the apparatus of the state to attack its political opponents. He claimed that this was what living in a "free society" meant (or some rubbish to that effect). I then postulated that under his warped system of logic, what Robert Mugabe is doing to Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe now is legitimate, since it is a "free society". He then got upset and started poking me, which is a sure indication that he's realised what a moron he is.

Next time, I will suggest to him that he would probably declare that since the Chairman of the Fed is appointed by the President of the USA, he is not independent. To hell with what the financial markets and political analysts think - we can throw them all out by applying his faux theory of moral/political equivalence.


I saw this girl with a pencilbox that had 6 zips on either side. Gah.

I don't know why people like Flickr so much. Their photo pages always take the longest times to load. It must be one of the slowest sites on the Internet.

I asked my driving instructor why the bulk of the learner drivers I saw were female, and all the instructors were male, and he said that the girls take longer to learn, and more of them fail the practical tests. Tym: "Sadly, I took 3 tries to pass - and ironically the time I passed, I hit the kerb, immediate failure."

I got another man in Buddhist monk robes offering me a Buddha talisman. Gah. This one had a PRC accent.

I saw someone with a very weird desktop wallpaper: it was a collage with a picture of him and some girl, a picture of a male bodybuilder and a picture some Jap girl (probably an AV star).

Frazer and his insult to religious sensibilities

"In studying religion, a religious person would disavow the scientific method and naturalism: the very nature of religion is that it requires an appeal to the supernatural, for religion, according to Frazer’s definition, involves a “propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to control the course of nature and of human life”. For example, according to Sikhism, Nanak was appointed God’s Supreme Guru and founded the religion with the help of divine revelation, yet applying a naturalistic perspective, some scholars see Sikhism as a syncretic blend of Muslim and Hindu influences. Assuming naturalism might seem unfair to the religions being studied, but it is an assumption shared by all the social sciences, and is the only epistemological framework by which we can compare different religions objectively, since it relies on objective facts which may be verified...

Does one’s own faith affect one’s scholarly understanding of religion? To answer this question, one can read how Bruce M. Metzger, a Biblical scholar and a believer to boot, opined that although many elements of Christianity which Frazer might label survivals – resurrected savior-gods, sacramental meals and the initiating of new members through a baptism of sorts - were shared by the religions and Mysteries of the ancient world, he concludes that Christianity, the newer religion, did not engage in substantive borrowing. One cannot help but wonder if his religion had affected his analyses, for such an argument would hold no water in a court hearing on patent or copyright infringement.

It is possible for one to have a religion and critically analyze religion in general, yet one has to guard vigorously against cognitive dissonance setting in when what one knows academically and intellectually conflicts with what one believes religiously. Detachment from one’s own religious perspective is essential, but this is not always possible. Being religious is one matter, but it should not affect the way one studies religion, for that does a disservice not only to the religious scholar himself, but the academic community at large and perhaps also humanity in general. In the final analysis, academic rigour in the study of religion might best be ensured by considering the input of non-religious scholars, as well as scholars from different religions."

Seen outside St Andrew's Cathedral:


"Jesus said: Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Mark 6:31"


Sign below:


"DANGER - KEEP OUT"


I was tipped off about this by someone who wishes to remain anonymous (who told me it said "come inside n get some rest"). I'd actually brought my camera but it decided to stop working totally, as opposed to just being wonky.

Should I get it repaired (it's past warranty) or get a new one before I go to Utrecht? Hmm. I already have 2 CF cards and don't want to migrate to a different family of solid-state memory cards. Blah.

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons." - Bertrand Russell

Random Playlist Song: Sam the American Eagle - Discourse on Nudity

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is I - Sam the American Eagle.

I would just like to say a few words about "nudity" in the world today. And I for one am just appalled by it.

Why, did you know that underneath their clothing the entire population of the world is walking around completely naked? Is that disgusting? And it's not just people, although goodness knows that's bad enough. Animals too, even cute little doggies and pussy cats, can't be trusted. Underneath their fur - absolutely naked!

And it's not just the quadrupeds either. Birds too - yes, beneath our fine feathers, birds wear nothing! Nothing at all. Abs... oh m... could someone, hand me a robe? ... Mmmhmm.

***

A senior on economics being mathematical:

"I don't know why many people complain that economics is too mathematical. I hear it all over the web (meaning students in other universities think the same way) and there was someone whom I spent quite some time teaching static optimisation gave up economics because of this. Econs is not math but it requires math. You don't see engineers complaining about the math they have to learn- so why should we? Moreover, most econs courses do not really require a lot of math. I don't even need to solve a differential equation here. We only learn some basic optimisation techniques and that's only in certain courses. Even in more technical courses like game theory you don't need to know more than what you should know from A'levels. The only course which I learned new math methods was honours micro, micro1 (lagrangian) and honours macro (difference equations). We don't even need to know any of these in detail - we just need to know how to apply these methods which really is just a step above using a formula. (I even know a lecturer we mixed up continuity and differentiability - something I learned in calculus 1) I think the problem is that most students like myself go into economics to avoid courses like engineering and so it's understandable that math is not our strong suit. I think if we made math econs compulsory, a lot of students would have an easier transition."

***

Shaun seems to be blogging as much as me. An excellent critique of, among other things, the post-modernist viewpoint used by some conservatives to disingenuously argue that liberalism is a form of intolerance:

"Because if I as a Liberal 'impose' my viewpoint on you as a Conservative, you do not lose anything for you are still free to practice your conservative stance and lifestyle etc (though I might personally detest it). But if I as a conservative were to impose my conservative viewpoint on you as a liberal, then you would lose the ability to practice privately what is not to my taste. And if I dislike a particular minority group then here comes state sanctioned discrimination. Homosexuals as unnatural? The fact that you could fire someone for being homosexual and he/she would have no legal recourse? Therein lies the crux of the issue. Under a conservative regime, you lose a lot more personal freedom than you do under a liberal one."


To bring in his point about secularism in the context of the liberal/conservative society dichotomy: For all their enthusiasm for the imposition of morality on others, social conservatives would be most displeased if they were the ones being forced to live by a different set of morals.

Meanwhile, in a liberal society, liberals would be little affected by the prevailing societal worldview, since they wouldn't be forced to live by them.

***

Past tense - "If citizens can be relied on more than ‘other people’ to fight to defend their own country, how then do we explain the collapse of the French Army in World War Two from which, even now, the French have to endure surrender monkeys jibes? Or that Nationalist and Communist forces were arguably more intent on fighting each other than the invading Japanese from 1937-45? The answer, of course, is that the circumstances were completely different and quite complex."

Student Guinea Pigs: How to get paid to sleep, drink, and take drugs, all in the interest of science - "While those big bucks are tempting, remember to always do your research before becoming a human guinea pig. Consider Harvard grad student, Kevin Bitterman's experience. He was paid $1200 to fast two days in a row, three separate times, for a study involving the injection of leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone. "I wish I'd known about the starvation induced hallucinations," he says. "Studies that pay a lot do so for a reason. Be careful." He still has nightmares, he says, about a study he heard about at one Texas institution."Someone once told me about a study where they pay $10,000 to amputate and then attempt to reattach your toe!" Whether that's true or an urban myth, remember that not all experiments mean easy money."
For some reason, I am reminded of how fasting brings on divinely-inspired visions.

Singapore: Choose a wave over rage - "Singapore's government urged drivers to apologize for "errors of judgment" on the road and wave to fellow motorists, in its latest behavior modification campaign rolled out Thursday... Singapore, a tiny, wealthy city-state, is well-known for its campaigns to modify behavior. Among its efforts have been campaigns to teach Singaporeans to speak English properly, to show people how to be more romantic, and to flush public toilets. Critics have denounced the numerous promotions of morality as Orwellian and condescending toward citizens."
Actually Communist was what came to my mind.

>I suspect this common complaint of the perils of subjectivity of
>feeling stems in part from the problem of the attempt at what Dworkin
>calls an Archimedean approach: trying to evaluate our human systems
>and human behaviour from some point outside these institutions,
>outside ourselves and outside our convictions... I have hinted at
>this before when I tried to ask Gabriel what "objectivity" really
>-meant- and had no satisfactory answer.

Maybe I shall have another spin at this.

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of arguments I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . . "

Ok, that's the cheap answer, since I too can agree that what is objective to some people may not be considered such to others. Ergo Creation "Science" and the like.

We could also take the scientific/statistical approach: we are never 100% sure of objectivity, but we are at least reasonably sure of it. Of course the problem then is that objectivity and truth might become hobbled by a lack of data, or defined by majoritarianism and groupthink.

Some might take comfort in outlining everything in the syntax of logic, starting with premises and following them to their logical conclusion. But the real world is not a logic circuit, and people can dispute the premises, the deductions and/or the conclusions.


I doubt we can come up with a definition or foolproof yardstick of objectivity, really, since it could always be deconstructed and its assumptions/method of discourse/worldview questioned. The only way to come up with something immune to post-modernism is to start with no assumptions, no method of discourse and no worldview. But then we wouldn't even be able to take a simple step for fear of plunging into the void, let alone start the journey of a thousand miles.

"Even deconstructionism can be deconstructed... you get an infinite regress" (I can't believe I forgot to put this on my quotes page)

Truth be told, I find the Cartesian insistence on absolute certainty (in this case, perfect objectivity) puzzling, since it can never be attained. Do we spend our time chasing phantoms, searching for "The One Truth" in hope of solving all the problems of the world (at least those that arise from inter-personal disagreements)? Hell, even if someone managed to dig out "The One Truth", some people would refuse to believe it. Wherefore the dogged quest for it? Much more can be done for much less - just look at the guy who, instead of searching for absolute truth/certainty, accumulated the world's largest collection of navel fluff (certified by the Guinness World Records. No, not the totally non-affiliated, ersatz Ma-laysian version)!

So - no, I cannot offer anyone absolute truth/certainty/objectivity. Would you settle for bread and circuses instead?


"The modern world is characterized by a percentage of objectivity. The dark ages is characterized by a overwhelming percentage of faith. The post-modern world is characterized by overwhelming nihilism."

There's this jokes mailing list called Buffalo's Chips, and the jokes come in clean (non-offensive) and adult (offensive) versions. The clean ones are all bad jokes and almost all are either corny jokes, puns or both. Meanwhile even stuff like "Murphy's Law For Witches", which seems totally harmless, goes on the adult list.

Are there good non-offensive jokes out there?! Perhaps, due to the march of political correctness, anything remotely funny is considered offensive, so to be safe, we are left with corny jokes (which offend no one except those with a sense of humour) and puns (which only offend the words themselves). Everyone is then happy, having escaped offence. Except for people with a sense of humour.

***

Toons on Drugs

Speedy Gonzales
Hey, c'mon. Was there ever a rodent when Amphetamine abuse is so obvious? And did you notice, he runs out and gets the food for everyone, but does he ever eat any?

Elmer Fudd
No question, the boy trips on Ecstacy. I mean, listen to that laugh, would you?

Wile E. Coyote
Now here's a total PCP burnout case. Not only does he feel no pain, but he's too brain damaged to know he's licked.

Yosemite Sam
Another Angel Dust suspect. His aggression knows no bounds, but despite being shot by cannons at point blank range, he just gets madder and meaner.

Snoopy
Of course, likes to trip out with grass. Mostly, he's pretty mellowed out, but when he gets his paws on that Hash Oil, hey, its WWI flying Ace time.

Olive Oyl
Probably Dexatrim abuse, maybe some amphetamines. Who is that skinny?! She might even be anorexic, she IS always giving her burger to her friend. One side question, what the heck are Popeye and Brutus thinking? They almost made the list for dating her.

He-Man
This is an easy one. I mean c'mon. Roid monkey #1. "BY THE POWER OF ANABOL!!!!!!" Makes me want to root for Skeletor. Alone in his castle, hitting the weights. And on top of that he even injects the stuff in his pet tiger. Animal Abuse!

Yogi and Boo Boo
We all know what is really in those picnic baskets. They go back to the cave and trip. Another side: Are they gay? I mean, take a look at BooBoo. Not that there's anything wrong with that.....

Droopy Dog
The number one downer abuser in toon land. Can't someone slip him an upper every year or two. The only time I ever saw him happy is when he sees the picture of the babe.

Dopey (Dwarf)
He openly admits it. The other dwarfs deny involvement but they are under investigation. Allegations are that Doc is writing some extra 'scripts' for Sneezy and all the guys partaking are afloat.

Daffy Duck
If he isn't using crack, Marion Barry is clean. He is so wired he bounces around on his head without pain. Blows his beak off all the time. Some symptoms might be from "daffiness" but Haldol wouldn't work for him.

Shaggy
By far the #1 suspect. His clothes, his hair, his bad goatee, the boy converses with dogs. But all of this is nothing until you go to the Munchie Factor. Anybody who averages 9.3 dog treats (scooby snacks) consumed per episode smokes pot. And look at the way he and his friends painted that van!

Me: "humans’ motivational and cognitive bias for novelty can lead the modern man/woman to favor the perception of slimness."

Uhh, but in places like Singapore and Hong Kong where so many girls are anorexic, shouldn't there be a countervailing trend then in favour of a healthy weight?

A: Maybe not. Girls might be competing as to who is more anorexic than another - you are thin but I can be thinner than you :P .

During my JC days most girls weren't eating much anyways. One girl starts to skip lunch and eats like a bird all the time, and very soon the whole class of girls start eating less and then skipping lunches.

It's amazing. I was weighing 39 kg for a 1.63 m girl. That was down 13 kg from my heaviest in less than half a year. Same went for my classmates.

Eating like birds and waiting for the day we're skinny enough to take flight.

The worst thing is, the skinnier we get, the skinnier we strive to be. It's always relative. You need fat girls to reassure you of your skinniness. Slippery slope it is, the whole class of girls get skinnier.

There are those who maintained that healthy eating is good. But they fell for it all the same in the end. When everyone thinks skinny is good, you can get confused too.

Ed: The above was from an IVLE forum.

***

Someone: btw i watched 40 y/o virgin today
think a poster of ur Asian Prince appeared in it


Someone else: presumably religion for some people cannot be intellectualised.

Me: I don't mind that so much. admit your religion is irrational. I don't mind.
but when they claim it's logical then commit intellectual suicide - that's what I simply cannot stand
tell me 1+1 = 3 and I flip.


Someone (2): haha we should have a series like that
Blitz Science
or somethign like tht

we need it to be like 'on the go, spontaneous, out of the world kinda shit'
a 'will do anything with any thing available'
how about science-at-home, diy science,
or MACGUYVER SCIENCE!

we should do a study
correlation btwn weather and daisy dukes
daisy dukes = ultra short pants
denim pants

find out which fac has the most amt of daisy dukes too
hehehhe
we seriously need to have a series

***

Someone: so out of curiosity, what is the standard of students like at NUS? do you find classes challenging? stimulating?

Me: classes are challenging
stimulating *slightly* less so
the students are less inspiring

then again it's not just NUS
*** was from Brown. she complained people always talked rubbish or trivial things in tutorials
her tutors always said she needed to speak more
once she finally said something very profound, everyone was stunned.

Someone: heh Brown leh!

Me: haha JH [Ed: Johns Hopkins] how

Someone: well that's the impression i get here too, that the very lauded "US Model" that SMU is using isn't really that great

encouraging classroom participation is one thing, they do a lot of that here
but most of the time it's just gibberish and people trying to make themselves heard
not really that they have anything insightful to add

on the other hand encouraging discussion is not always bad, out of 10,000 crappy ideas you might get one good idea, better than everyone shuts up and get 0 good ideas

anyhoo... yar, JH undergrads are an impossible breed... classes aren't challenging because they just wear down the instructor to the bone until everything becomes somethign you can mug up

[Addendum: So why do we work harder for a degree worth less? Boo hoo.]

And so today I went around asking a few people if they had gotten their free samples yet of Kotex's latest product - Kotex Dri-Comfort. Most that I asked said no, probably due to the promoters' not adopting the hard sell tactics of other groups (pressing free samples into the hands of hapless girls). When I asked YC, an insane flicker came into his eyes, which I immediately recognised, since it very often comes to mine also. We then agreed to get our free samples together, and dragged Ling along in case they refused to give us the samples we were entitled to, to see if they were as good as advertised (since the posters didn't say they were for girls only).

We went to the area where they were giving out the samples, only to find a solitary guy pacing about. There were 4 people in his group, but apparently the 3 girls had run away and gone to the canteen, explaining the lack of the hard sell tactics. He gave us the samples readily enough, though he didn't let me take part in the lucky draw for the voucher giveaway. I chatted a bit with him and it turned out that he was the only guy in the finals of the Kimberly-Clark Young Marketer’s Award competition.

Returning to Chatterbox, YC broached the idea of carrying out an experiment, and several of us swung into action, with Justin kindly videotaping the whole process (yes, a second video in 2 days. And if everyone is good I will have another video tomorrow!)

[Addendum: Youtube videos follow









]

(Download a zip file with all the videos: http://s10.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3LET9UM2361XY1WHE4IPEJB2HS

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2MQ4IJP8)

A video transcript follows:



Narrator: And today we are testing a new brand of Kotex, uhh, sanitary pads. [Ed: Notice that the packaging is most misleading.]
YC: Between the overnight and the ultra-thin


Ultra-thin on right, overnight on left


Narrator: First, we have artificial blood (blue food colouring we found diluted with lots of water, like in the ads)


YC sticks some black coloured tape to mark on a glass the water level we will use for all the setups.

Girl: Too much and you have the red cheek (?)


YC shows off his jacket which proclaims "Busty"


Fake blood is poured over the control, a teabag (unfortunately, we could not readily find any other brand of sanitary pads, nor were we willing to spend the time, money and effort to rush down to the coop to buy a pack of 10, of which we'd only use 1)


Teabags suck at sucking up artificial blood
Me: Our control has evidently failed.
YC: A bad control anyway.


The ultra-thin is wet.


Me: Wow. Magic - it is all absorbed!


The overnight is wet.


We feel for dryness.


Oddly enough, the ultra-thin is dryer. [Ed: The ultra-thin was damp, the overnight was a little soggy]
YC: Yeah, because too much spilled over.


Me: As you can see, overnight pads are not as... better than ultra-thins. [Ed: I got confused by our screwy setup]


Incredulous, we feel the pads again.


YC: It's like wearing wet pampers when you were a young kid, y'know? That doesn't feel right. This, at least, feels dry.


Ling is upset because the flow simulation sucks (blame pad ads, not us!)
YC: We cannot control all the variables.


The cameraman (IIRC) simulates what happens if someone's water bursts while she's wearing a pad.


The soggy aftermath.


Someone in the background: Is this a group project?
Narrator/cameraman: ... is not recommended that you use these as chemical waste spillkits.


We dissect the pads.
YC: This is from the ultra-thin. As you can see, it's all crystalised


I detect no scent from the odourless, jelly-like crystalised semi-solid.


YC on the overnight: It seems different, so we shall tear it open... There're no crystals! It's just a pad.


Some of the jelly-crystal is taken out and put on YC's finger.


The two are compared side-by-side


We interview the guy who gave us the free samples


Why was the overnight pad damper than the ultra-thin?
Guy: I have no frickin clue.


He is very happy that we're helping promote Kotex products.


( ) is the quick ( ) that he conducted. Thank you for your great contributions to science and for your (diverse knowlege) [Note from transcriber: or something like that. garbled.]

[Ed: If anyone can transcribe what the Indian guy is saying, please leave a comment here, send me an IM message or use the feedback form. Thank you.]


Narrator: This video has been brought to you by anybody but the University Scholars Program. Thank you for your attention.


Someone: "what kind of video is it? does it involve gunther and his sunshine kids? does it involve (gasp) wo-hen??!
or is it (deep indrawn breath) kimberly, the pink ranger???"

Someone else: "eh, what's this video about sanitary pads

i thought nus upskirt

disappointing"


Kotex Dri-Comfort
Introducing the new revolutionary Extra Dry Cover - finally women don't have to choose between the dryness they love and the comfort they desire! It truly offers the best of both worlds!

Unlike other pads, Kotex Dri-Comfort keeps you dry and comfortable without being:

X Itchy
X Plasticky
X Sticky
X Hot & uncomfortable
X Irritating to the skin

1) NEW - Extra Dry Cover: Stay fresh and dry
2) NEW - Double Anti-Leakage Channels: Extra protection
3) Safety Zone: Fits securely and traps fluid
4) Quick Absorbing Pores: Better absorbency so you feel fresh and dry.

o 300% drier than other brands
o Luxuriously softer for ultimate comfort
o 100% better leakage protection


Sounds impressive, but I still think tampons are better.

Given how cheap and prevalent sanitary pads are, anyone who can think of an alternate use for them will be sure to strike it rich. To mop up rivers of sweat, perhaps?

An 8 year old boy walks home from school each day past an 8 year old girls house. One day as he is passing by, carrying a football, he can't resist taunting the girl. He holds up the football and says, "See this football? Football is a boys game, and only boys can have a football!".

The little girl runs into the house and cries to her mother, "I want a football!" Being a woman of the 90's, her mother runs out and gets her one. The next day the girl is waiting for the little boy and he rides up on his bike.

She holds up the football... "Nah Na Nah Nah".

The little boy angrily points to his bike and says, "Oh yeah, well this is a boys bike and only boys get boys bikes and you can't have one!"

She runs in to mom and the next day is waiting for him on her new boys bike.

The little boy gets furious and pulls down his pants, and pointing to his most private of parts says, "Look, only boys have these and your mom can't buy you one!!!".

The next day he walks by and says to her, "Well, I guess I showed you!" to which she promptly pulls up her dress, points to her parts and proclaims "My mother tells me that as long as I have one of these I can have as many of THOSE as I want!


If 2 lesbians under the age of 16 have sex with each other, do both go to jail for underaged sex?

Unfortunately, there's no male to conveniently push the blame to here, not even one who is also underaged (since we know that underaged males are capable of informed consent even if underaged females aren't). The girl is always the victim, even if she's voluntarily selling her body or, even if you reject that reason, is the one extorting money from the male.

You can be smart enough to realise the power you have over men and then think up schemes for manipulating or deceiving them and/or asking for or extorting more money post-hoc from the men you have sex with, but that doesn't make you mature enough to consent to said acts in the first place. But then if you can conceptualise that underaged sex is illegal and then think up a grand scheme for blackmailing and extorting money from the males by threatening to go to the police (which seems to me a more complex principle for someone to grasp than that of informed consent), you should be prosecuted for knowingly aiding and abetting a crime (even if they can't get you for entrapment).

But I suppose no one can be blamed in the example above since there's no male, so both will get off scot-free.


A: haha they won't get caught
the policemen will be too turned on

B: maybe they'll charge the 'male'
thought one will play the male role the other the female
or do they swap roles each time
hahaa


C: i am of the view that underage girls should be convicted as well
for aiding and abetting the statutoy rape

Me: if it's voluntary

C: mostly it is innit?
otherwise they would be charged with actual rape


D: it's every man's fantasy to watch two lesbians get it on except mine. =/

E: woo
roxor
2 underage lesbians
woot

on a more serious note, I hear what you're saying
but then the law is always several decades behind the times
at least it's not as bad as the military though, which is always several centuries behind

The group "Bliss" struck Law, Medicine, Computing and the Conservatory. "The KOTEXERS" were set loose on Science. "Team Ignite" preyed on Engineering girls (maybe they drew the short straw) with "Kotex Engineering Girls' Day Out" and now "Creative Juices Marketing" (IIRC - I know the first 2 words are right) is tackling what may be the most demanding market of all - Arts. Monday and Tuesday will see them pressing their wares into the hands of Arts girls (hell, since the whole school comes to Arts to eat, they'll probably be encountering some girls who have gotten their free samples before).

Since I don't visit other faculties except for an occasional sightseeing visit, I am not conversant with the other groups' advertising campaigns. Thus, I will evaluate "Creative Juices Markting"'s campaign purely on its own merits.

All of the posters had the slogan: "Has there been any revolution without bloodshed/discomfort?" (minor quibble: I don't think using the virgule in a slogan is entirely appropriate. The word "or" would've been better), and featured pictures of such events as the French Revolution. The occasional poster had a picture of what I assume is Kotex's latest sanitary pad offering (forgive me if they have newer ones - I do not make it my business to keep up with the latest developments in sanitary pad technology), with lines showing off its various features.

Obviously, the rhetorical answer is no. Yet, I can think of revolutions like the Agricultural Revolution and the Green Revolution which didn't discomfort anybody. Arguably, those who stuck to the old methods of agriculture were discomfited by the new technology. Yet, if that is the case then other companies making what are euphemistically known as female hygiene products are and/or will be discomfited by Kotex's latest offering. Either way, the slogan is a meaningless one (which shows that they've mastered the art of advertising).

More seriously, the entire business model of Kotex is based on bloodshed and discomfort. If bloodshed and discomfort did not exist, then they would all be out of a job (Side note: Whenever girls complain about their periods, I always recommend a good ole hysterectomy, but that suggestion is always met with a good deal of apprehension, accompanied with cries like "I love my uterus!").

The poster also promised satisfaction or your money back, yet it also promised free samples. Since you don't pay anything for free samples, you can't get your money back.

The biggest oversight of the campaign, I feel, is that it totally neglects tampon users. Tampons are:

- smaller
- take up less space in your handbag
- flushable (this is disputed by someone)
- odourless (I'm told odour and scent aren't the same. Scent is applied, but odour comes from within)
- don't need to be wrapped after use (this is also disputed by someone)
- more discreet
- cleaner (leaking less - "despite kotex and their wings side leakage is always a big problem")
- more comfortable
- don't give you pad rash
- make the bloodshed and discomfort end sooner ("because they are in there actively soaking up blood. pads just... lie there and absorb, tampons stanch the flow)
- free you to take part in more activities (like helping "users fulfill their aquatic tendencies", as someone poetically put it)
- give you more flexibility fashion-wise
- and, in extremis, can be used in the event of a severe nosebleed.

I'm sure you can think of many more examples. With all of these multi-purpose applications, how can anyone not want to use tampons? We say: use this unique, flexible female hygiene product more often in your daily speech. It will identify the quality of your character immediately. Use them often, and proudly! Switch to tampons today!

Quotes:

[On writing on the OHT] My pen's so clear. I'm happy.

You attended yesterday's lecture. Then why are you here again?... *Is told that it's not the same person* I remember... something wrong with my memory.

It's so carefree to be a teenager. [Me: So what are we? Not teenagers, not yet adults.] We're half fucks.

Different slop. Slop is also different. (slope)

[On doing badly in the midterm] If you're hardworking, if you're consistent - you can do well [overall]. [Ed: But if you're consistent and you did badly in the midterm, you'd do badly in the final too...]

I have been told that, very sneakily, some of you tried to do the same question twice [using a different method]... Some of you tried to do the same question twice, in the same way. I don't know what you were thinking of.

[On underemployment] They spend 3 hours working. Th rest of the time they're talking.

This is a very exciting model, the RBC model. We're going to go on to another exciting model - the Keynesian business cycle model.

[On sticky wages] Can you imagine if you went to your mom and asked for your allowance to be indexed to wages? I mean inflation? Your mom would go crazy.

[On writing assignment answers on the board] From next week onwards, if you have not presented, I will ask you to present. If you have already presented, I will not let you volunteer.

My project mates - they do their work. That's all I ask for... They speak English. That's all I ask for. Very basic requirements - do you work and speak English.

We have some unknown ver'rye'er'berls (variable)

I saw this guy in Arts. He looks like the Obi-Wan Kenobi... the beard. (like)

Is the function of a wise choice (Y's)

You have to know how to get the results. We are economists, not mathematicians.

Last time, in NJ, after drinking a can of green tea I would run around the school, because I got super high.

[On the ultimatum game and economic irrationality] You may ask: If Player II cannot get [a better deal], why wouldn't he reject [it]? I don't know why... That is the definition. He cannot do better... If I play the game with you, if I want the whole pie for myself, you will reject [my offer]. I agree with you.

Delta cue'bee (cube)

[On Nach equilibria] You may ask why you choose [this module's code]. it's because you cannot do better in any other module.

[On the Jack Rabbit] I don't need it any more.

In the past, when I was a much more hornier bastard, SCGS was my first choice... That was 1996. Now SCGS girls all cannot make it.

[After going through the mid-term] Write your name, then you can leave. Enjoy your life. Exam is nothing.

Not everyone has the same level of sexual interest. To some of you this will be puzzling, to others it will be obvious.

[On Horrobin's theory about fat, creativity, eccentricity and schizophrenia] You have to be a little bit disconnected from reality to be creative. Really creative people are really quite strange.

[On forays out of the classroom] I had the opportunity to help with an orang utan... Not Ah Meng, another one.

We're nice people. We smile. Men are more likely to read too much into the smile. It is adaptive to risk a rebuff... If 9 out of 10 women slap your face and say 'bugger off', it doesn't matter if the 10th woman smiles and, you know?... Bad manners are good for genetics.

I was terribly tempted to bring in a snake this morning and present it in the middle of class... How many of you would leave now if I had a snake in my pocket? No?

[On depression] There's a risk you might kill yourself. Don't do it. It's a bad choice. You will always recover and feel better. Always.

[On hunter-gatherer societies] Suicide wasn't an easy thing to do, short of taking a large instrument and falling on it.

I've got free copies of Time Magazine's October 26th issue here. They're free... [Student: Will it be used in the exam?] That is such a disgusting reply... All you think about is passing exams. You're here to learn. [Me: You could make this a non-examinable module] [Other student: Or you could give us the A straight away]... If everybody is somebody, nobody is anybody.

[On the OHP screen's string blocking the whiteboard] This is so infuriating. World Class University dangles the string in front of the whiteboard.

How do you recognise a psychopath when you see one? [Student: When he starts charging at you] You've got a sort of mad ax murderer complex.

[On psychopaths] Imagine the worst sort of car salesman and magnify him 5 to 10 times.

We were just discussing Psychopathy... Failure of conscience... You, of course, are stricken with guilt for coming to class late.

You might want to see if 'executioner' is listed in the government directory. My money is that it's not there... Effort is made to distance themselves from it. (them)

I'm told that the hangman, the axman would always ask forgiveness from the victim to be, which was always given because the victim wanted a clean cut... No lingering doubts [on the axman's part]

Name reasons why people kill each other. *silence*... You have difficulty in thinking of reasons. I am encouraged [as to your lack of homicidal tendencies]

In India elephants raid distilleries to drink the alcohol. The caretakers come in and find them sitting around with their trunks in the air.

[On how drugs actually make you feel worse] I used to smoke... the way I gave it up was by smoking until I felt sick.

The burger is $1. Everything else is 4 or 5 times the price. So the guys eat 2 or 3 a day. [Professor: I'm getting an insight into student economics]

[On fat being in in human history] Ruben's women, Titian's women... were fat... Laughing Buddha - he's fat, there's no other way to describe him. He's globular... if you look at the advertisements before World War II, the women are voluptuous. Substantial, and big.

Someone: you should put up a personal ad on your site and see what kind of girls reply
just for the heck of it. i'd be interested in e results. hahah


Boo hoo, I'm a sociologist's experiment. Don't they typically pay lab rats to humiliate themselves in these things?


Xephyris the audiophile: haha, figures the mac guys don't know why 32 bit or 16 bit decoding is faster than 24 bit

Me: why?

Xephyris: your cpu bus is 32 bits wide

if you decode at 24 bits and send 24 bits of data to the soundcard, you'll end up sending 24 bits + 8 extra bits of the next "chunk" to the soundcard, which waits in the buffer until the next clock cycle - in 2 cycles, you have to wait 1 extra cycle to complete a full chunk

comparatively if you send at 32 bits, or 2 chunks of 16 bit each, you don't wait at all

Me: ah
mac experts?

Xephyris: yeah mac experts, they don't know what their soundcard is called and what resolution it supports either
not like it matters, because iTunes doesn't let you tweak anything anyway

Me: are you sure you were talking about mac experts?
or just normal mac users haha

Xephyris: aren't all mac users mac 'experts'? w

Me: uhh
experts at denouncing Wintel. Oops, but Mac is going to use Intel chips now.
experts at denouncing Windows then