"'The best couturiers, hairdressers, home designers and cooks are men. I suspect that, were it biologically possible, men would make better mothers.’" - Ida Alexa Ross Wylie, ‘The Little Woman’ 1945.
***
Someone on my hair angsting: "maybe your hair is in good condition then:D
maybe it's just like the supermodels who think they are too fat
and pretty actresses who think they are too ugly"
Someone else on a snide remark I made about a quote on someone's file: "close reading is getting many creative interpretations from u"
Information from a source on [at least the old] SAJC: "the only good thing about Chapel was having cute councillors up on stage. Speaking of councillors, do you know that all SAJC councillors have to be "confirmed" at St. Andrew's cathedral, and so I guess that rules out having non-christian councillors. Head of the student council had to be an Anglician, though there was this year the Head was a SJI (hence catholic) boy."
Isn't that illegal? Religious discrimination...
***
Apparently we now have Halal hairdye. Oh well, I suppose after Halal ice I shouldn't be surprised anymore.
***
"Perhaps we can avoid the absurd if we devote ourselves to providing only for the basic needs of everyone. There is a great deal of misery in the world, and many of us could easily spend our lives trying to eradicate it - wiping out starvation, disease and torture.
Such aims do indeed seem to give life a meaning that is hard to question. But while they are certainly worthy and perhaps imperative goals, they cannot eliminate the problem. Granted, one advantage of living in a world as bad as this one is that it offers the opportunity for many activities whose importance can't be questioned. But how could the main point of human life be the elimination of evil? Misery, deprivation, and injustice prevent people from pursuing the positive goods which life is assumed to make possible. If all such goods were pointless and the only thing that really mattered was the elimination of misery, that really would be absurd. The same could be said of the idea that helping others is the only thing that really gives meaning to life. If no one's life has any meaning in itself, how can it acquire meaning through devotion to the meaningless lives of others?"
- The View From Nowhere, Thomas Nagel
***
I went down to what is known (affectionately or otherwise) to many of its students as Boon Lay Polytechnic for a focus group. Interestingly, from the small sample size I obtained, the SACSALs there seem less hiao than in The Premier Institution of Social Engineering, though they are equally annoying. Also the most normal-seeming (ie the most abnormal-seeming, since now it is normal to be abnormal - take the dying of hair, for instance. If you have black hair, you are abnormal) University students I've seen are from the NTU School of Communication and Information (aka Mass Comm). Perhaps, in the isolated environment that is NTU, cut off from the rest of the world, a sub-culture has evolved. Or maybe I need to visit the University of Gymnastics one day to reduce my sampling error so I can apply the Central Limit Theorem (you know I'm becoming loopy when I start making nonsensical statistical references in my writing - blame it on my USP 'Writing' module).
It was also very interesting because I was the only non-NTU Mass Comm student at the table. So since the $10 incentive for going for a focus group apparently comes from the students themselves, it seems that the money just gets recirculated in their closed economy (until outsiders like me come in to siphon some out).
***
Apparently the banner the Muslim society put up at their bazaar, according to someone, said: "TOWARDS A MORE GOD-CONSCIOUS SOCIETY". Bah.
My sister always complains that she sees a lot of ass cracks when she comes to NUS, but somehow I never see them. Maybe it's because I'm not looking out for them.
We saw a video which included a clip of a tiger eating a peacock. Other people seemed quite agitated but I was one of the few who was laughing. Ah well.
Quotes:
[On price fixing] The CEO who proposed it was fined, and promised not to do it again *laughs from audience*
[Me: Question: What do you learn in 'Biodiversity'? He can't answer the question.] Neither can I.
The bad thing is when I talk about sexual selection it's not a very interesting or erotic topic... but we have some videos of animals doing it, to wake you up.
[On the tiffin girl of the day coming in with food for many people] It's like food supply here. I'm also hungry.
[On the Prisoners' Dilemma] If it's only for prison people then it's not that interesting.
[On Vampire Bats overfeeding] Basically they pee out all the serum, and once they have reached critical size or critical weight - [To someone eating salad with faux bacon bits made of soy protein] how's lunch coming along over there? Nothing red [inside], I hope.
Tit for tit (tat)
[On a journal article] When you read the paper, what's the hidden message? To endlessly confuse everybody?
Billy Gates. What has he been doing lately? Besides writing a lot of crappy code.
[Professor: Would you want to call something altruistic that's harmful to you but helps others?] That's just stupid.
[On teaching altruism] No one wants to sit down and talk to a eight year old child and say that you should be good to your neighbor because the benefits outweight the costs... you don't want to start explaining the dictator game and the ultimatum game to young kids.
The more attractive the peacock, the more it gets to pro- [Other student: Mate. Mate. Mate.]
[Student on differences between males and females: Size] Size of what? *laughs from audience*
[On differences between males and females] Hair loss.
Everytime you walk around campus you can see a lot of differences between males and females.
We don't have the time to see the vidoes now. *sounds of dismay* If you can come up with the 2 main factors [affecting sexual selection] within 5 minutes, I'll show you the videos.
Many a times you read the textbook. (time)
You're probably born around this time - 1973. [Student: You're 10 years early] You're born in 1983? I'm a bit dated... I'm ancient.
Singaporeans abrought (abroad)
per chases (purchases)
he sole it to the wholesaler (sold)
My niece works till 11 or 12 [pm] and she gets 6 months' bonus. *gasps* Is that a measure of welfare?
[On family] The Italians - very close knit. The Italian Mafia - very close knit.
[On the CPI] The MTI economies are trying to come up with it, but my colleagues are complaining that their methodology is flawed.
If you are transisting to a knowledge-based economy (transiting)
This is particularly [important] in the United States, which is a welfare state (?! - a welfare state?)
Socrates always frames his questions so they don't have answers.
The reading only do this: spoil my eyes (did)
[On the writing module] This module can kill my 3 other modules
moral lerty (morality)
These are the killers, all the other readings are child's play compared to these... This will get your mind in a taffy, which is not my intention. I know now you think it is: he just wants to mess with our minds.
[On balance] I don't want you to say: therefore everything is equal and there's nothing to say. If you have nothing to say, don't write the essay.
When you write your essays you get lost in abstractions supported by abstractions supported by more abstractions.
[Some guy to some girl] Fuck you. No, I won't fuck you, you're a prude.
[On science girls] Science is full of 'floaters'... They float from place to place. They like to wear extremely baggy clothes. They look as if they are floating around.
[On my not-so-secret hair fantasy] Why don't you just shave your hair and wear a wig?
[Me: Shrill, Anorexic, Chinese-Speaking Ah Lians] Arts is full of them. *gets frosty looks from the 2 Arts girls beside him* Non-USP arts girls.
[Me on science floaters: Their primary prerogative is not to look good] Did you just use the word 'prerogative' when talking to me?... Never mind. I should talk more to you, then I'll become smarter. [Me: I've been told that before. Oh but you may also become more annoying.] You're annoying. [Me: Thank you.]
There's a huge difference between the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science. At 9 o'clock, the Faculty of Science is bustling. At 9 o'clock, the Faculty of Arts is sleepy. [Student: No one's awake].
[Counting students] 3, 6, 9. Looks like I've to get better video clips to get you to attend.
[On sexual selection] There's selection in humans too, but we better not go into that.
Today's going to be a lot of [video] clips [Students: Yay! *laughs*] (Today there's)
[On moorhens] They're scratching like girls
[On paternity testing] 10 to 35 percent of the offspring are not sired by the father. That's in all socities. Not just decadent Western Societies... highest [rate was] in England.
Females tend to fantasise about other males at the time of ovulation... At the time of ovulation they prefer males with more angular features. When they are not ovulating, they prefer males with more feminine features.
Lung term partnership (long)
[On diopsids - flies, which he likes] I have to show at least some fly videos
[On mate choice in humans] Male terns: Instead of fish you give diamonds. [Professor: Not very healthy to eat] (Male terns give fish, humans)
[On female and male mate choice in humans] I personally think it's genetically determined... but most of you think it's a social construct.
Males with symmetrical ears run faster than males with asymmetrical ears. No, it's not because of aerodynamics.
[On beauty vs wealth in determining male attractiveness] Ugly but fabulously wealthy - can work. Just look at Donald Trump.
[On babies liking symmetrical female faces] Horny baby.
[Someone with only one earring in one ear on symmetrical faces] Now I know why babies like me. [Me: Then you should put one earring in each ear - symmetrical]
When you're invited to a party you only talk to certain people. You don't talk to the others. [Student: Like him - {he's} laughing.] Let's be realistic here.
Copulation in many animals is not a very big affiar. Swallows - they fly around. *claps hands* That was it.
It's a weird discman. It works better when spoilt.
The British are very statistical people... They have statistics in their blood.
[On Karl Pearson] He wrote so much that people during his time dind't know what he wrote.
I'll read you a short grandfather story... Listen, listen: this is the only time I'm gonna read a grandfather story in this course.
Have you been to the sixth storey of the Economics department? It is the only department in this faculty with photos of economists... after the lecture please make a beeline there (Why would the sociology department have photos of economists?!)
This is like throwing a dard at a board (dart)
[On an unbiased estimator] This could be a dart thrower who is really cock-eyed, or something like that.
L'origine de Bert
Friday, March 18, 2005
"I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents." - Sir Winston Churchill
***
From what I read, there is a concerted campaign to spread FUD about homosexuals and AIDS in Singapore.
No doubt, this is to acquire political capital to ram the casino through.
***
***
The administration of The Premier Institution of Social Engineering starts screwing people even before matriculation:
"OMG! NUS are such bloody pricks.
i received a letter from them yesterday night [Ed: Saturday night], opened it just now- they want a scholarship app by tues, complete with a principal's report!
HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?
when this is all over i am going to make a voodoo doll and label it 'NUS' and stick millions of pins in it.
seriously. if they screw over someone who hasn't even started freshman year, you've got something coming."
My suggestion: Go to SMU, and send NUS a letter telling them that
Reply: [A letter] like, "SCREW YOU!"
Perhaps this is so, so that in the future we won't complain so much about governmental inefficiency and indeed may appreciate its efficiency compared to NUS.
Then again my favourite year 4 Law Girl says that compared to Bristol, NUS is relatively efficient: "the sunday before sch term opened, exchange supervisor told me tat i cldnt take 4 outta the 5 moduels i had pre-selected
so which ones COULD i take? she also dunno
hv to wait and see... attend ALL the lessons i were interested in, see if they'll take me...
no such thing as add/drop some more
they dive right into syllabus so i had to miss lessons basically
in the end nothing was relaly "my choice"
did a mix of modules tat were left with available slots/ kind convenors"
And Maid Marian in Nottingham concurs: "if u think the nus admin sux, u hafta see notts. then u'll realise what a dream the nus ppl are
they lost my £2k cheque for hall fees then called me a university debtor"
Must be a UK University affliction.
Meanwhile my NTU friend says they blackmail you: if you owe NTU money, they won't tell you but they'll threaten you when exam results are out, refusing to give you your results unless you pay up.
***
Essay grumbling from someone else: "if only people could be graded according to blog content and style of writing"
If only
And on close reading: "i gotta admit, it does over-complicate matters sometimes, life would be easier without all these, but the whole point abt writing modules is to get you to write well about something even if u dont like it"
Good point. If you can write well about uninteresting rubbish you can write well about anything: "the true test of ability and fortitude is to do something u dont like professionally and well". But then this module is not actually about writing and critical thinking, but rather about close reading
Someone on my description of close reading: "it sounds like practical crit on crack"
Someone should go and close read Rorschach inkblots. Would be very interesting to see the results.
I think if there were genuinely something interesting, useful or significant to write about, I wouldn't mind it so much (if at all if there was a genuine problem or complication to analyse), but the thing is that we have nothing real to write about, and so have to come up with what 'problems' which are, at least to normal people, contrived and nonsensical, to dissect and analyse. Jerry Seinfeld might have come up with an excellent sitcom on "nothing", but writing an essay on nothing is much harder.
Perhaps "homework assignments" (ie essays written on specific, often trite questions) are usually uninteresting (especially when they are the umpteenth esaay you've read on the dangers of Science and Technology, all of which sound the same since the writers just mug the points and vomit them out come essay time), but almost all close reading essays are even worse, since they are about nothing (nothing that normal readers care about anyway).
"it's always in FASS or USP classes that i hear so many fako accents!
dun really get them in bizad much
esp Lit/Eng/Philo/Pol Sci haha"
Hmm. I don't notice that.
Module tips: "To those who cannot afford to do another exposure and have not done any SS module, you can do the SSA module Singapore Society. Sociology of Singapore, cynic's style. Very enjoyable, might I say."
SSA1201
"Module Title: SINGAPORE SOCIETY
Module Description: This module introduces students to critical developments in the development of Singapore as a society and nation-state. It enables students to develop skills in understanding and making sense of Singapore society. It also encourages them to develop alternative interpretations of the development of Singapore society. The topics include: the origins of Singapore, ideology and identity, ethnic relations, industrialization, family, gender, religion, the state and civil society. This is a Singapore Studies module and open to students from all faculties."
Sounds interesting indeed. Then again:
"EXPECTATIONS
3. Preparatory Work
a. For each lecture (readings on average 4 hours per week)
b. For each discussion group (additional 2 hours per week over and above the readings)
4. Assignment (1 major term essay assignment - 6 weeks to complete)"
Hmm.
I'm doing my compulsory propaganda module right now (it is probably the best of the 4 available this semester), but I might do this as an unrestricted elective one day. Unfortunately I only have 5 of them (UEs) to play around with. Ah well.
***
Saw this M$N nick:
"The most amazing healing service ever! Muslims converted, aids patients healed, and my hamster is healed!. Glory to GOD!"
Right.
The one with (the) crab(s) suggests
"why not start a [NUS] community for Wo-Hen? I bet you'll have all the girls and the gay men clamouring to join it!"
That would be the *possibly* gay men, not the gay men per se. But maybe I could find someone like Gavin or Carrot Top.
"apropos" sends along this "humorous article I read which reminds me of you":
You may be a fundamentalist atheist if...
I found parts of it humorous too (for one thing, by definition an atheist cannot be a fundamentalist), but I'm not sure if it was for the same reasons that he did.
***
OB markers for Singapore film-makers
Follow the tale of Martyn See Tong Ming who, on submitting a 26 minute documentary on Chee Soon Juan to the Singapore Film Festival, was told that it was a political film and thus illegal. He was then threatened with legal action unless he withdrew the film from the festival.
Various articles on 'political' films in Singapore and related topics (eg Royston Tan's being interrogated by police) are attached.
You break the rules, we break your heads, says MM Lee
"I can assure you that in Singapore, when we decide that they are breaking the rules of the game, the unspoken rules as to how we survive, how we have prospered, then either their head is broken or our bones are broken."
- Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew issuing warning to SIA pilots at the World Brand Forum, CNA, Dec 2, 2003
***
Anal Sex According to the Word of God, Oral Sex According to the Word of God
"The Benefits of Swallowing - Drink of the Living Water
Aside from swallowing semen as a measure to prevent the waste and spillage of seed, ingesting ejaculate can have spiritual benefits, as we will see. Although the Old Testament makes reference to the bitterness of semen (And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water. [Numbers 5:24]), the New Testament casts the act of consuming ejaculate in a much more affirming light, as in the following passage, where Jesus speaks to the woman of Samaria about the gift of “living water”:
“Living water” in this context refers to semen, which literally is the liquid of life. As Christ indicates, drinking of the “living water” provides a spiritual replenishment for the soul. When the woman asks Jesus where she can get this “water”, he tells her to fetch her husband, clearly with the intention of instructing her on how to fellate him and swallow his semen."
This is both hilarious and instructive, since anyone looking at the text with an open mind would see that their interpretations are at least as correct as commonly accepted ones (if not more so, in some places).
***
Stupid Vending Machine Flash - KPMG interns are too free...
I have found the NUS Temasek Hall Online Social Club - Lut's Haloscan comments thread!
TimeCopy 1.4 - "Timecopy will copy the time, date, timezone, and daylight saving information from your desktop PC to you PalmOS device at each hotsync. Palm clocks are known to drift a little (about 1 second per day), and this way, you don't need to worry about that anymore."
Better than SyncTime, and free too!
Ban Steven Lim from appearing on Singapore Television Petition - "This petition is to be send to Mediacorp to ban Steven Lim from appearing on tv. In case you do not know who he is, check out his site at stevenlim.net . (but warned: just make a brief short visit) What is the intention of banning him? Simple. He is a shame of all Singaporean, and an attention whore."
tower of babel in singapore - "city harvest church, the giant mother of a building in jurong, cost a whopping 47.6 MILLION DOLLARS to build. as they proudly proclaim on their website, the money took the church 4 years to raise, with only 45% of their congregation working. the rest are basically housewives, retirees and kids. WHAT THE FUCK?!!! to add insult to injury, they're bragging about the type of titanium cladding that frames the outside of the building, as its being the first and only in southeast asia. the other building with this sort of titanium facade in the world, is the Guggenheim. yes. the fucking Guggenheim museum. they're also going on about their having the first Broquard fountain in SEA as well. of course Jaques Broquard is the best fountainmaker in the world. and you'll see this fountain, in their impressive opening flash intro at their website, fondly termed 'The Gates of Heaven'. right. so we should go drown ourselves there after having donated all our money to them so they can pay off their Phillip Starck bathrooms huh? yup. you heard me. a church having toilets by phillip starck."
Ah well. If people want to buy Magic Stones, they should be allowed to do so (if there is freedom of information, of course).
Rape as a Capital Crime - "But, if rape was punishable as a capital crime, then you have the unique situation where a rapist realizes that is in his best interest to murder the victim. What are the benefits of leaving the victim alive? Nothing that I can think of, except for whatever utility the rapist gets from withholding murder (which since he just raped the victim, I'm assuming that the rapist is not altruistic, and therefore this won't apply). But the costs of not murdering are high - there is a witness to his crime. So murdering actually becomes the better strategy if rape is punished as a capital crime, since in so doing, it increases the rapist's chances of survival."
Do Democratic Transitions Produce Bad Economic Outcomes?
"Several influential commentators have suggested recently that democratization in developing countries produces political instability, ethnic conflict, and poor economic outcomes... These authors buttress their claims with examples of democratic reforms that led to economic chaos and eventually a collapse back into autocracy. Such anecdotal evidence can be problematic from two perspectives. First, it is not clear how universal the pattern is. Perhaps the vast majority of other countries have had more successful transitions. For example, we rarely hear in these accounts about Mauritius and Botswana, two long term African success stories that also happen to be democratic countries. Second, these anecdotal accounts leave the counterfactual unspecified. Perhaps countries would have been even worse off in the absence of democratic transitions.
Does social science back up the pundits’ claims? We show in this paper that the data do not support the view that democratization is bad for economic performance. Our analysis reveals that major democratic transitions have, if anything, a positive effect on economic growth in the short run. Contrary to the claims of Kaplan, Zakaria, and Chau, this is especially true for the poorest countries of the world and those that are marked by sharp ethnic divisions. Democratization tends to follow periods of low growth rather than precede them. Moreover, democratic transitions are associated with a decline in growth volatility. Systematic analysis therefore uncovers a picture that is considerably more favorable to democratization."
***
Quotes:
The level 200 [modules] noticeboard (2000)
I majored in Philosophy in my undergraduate days. Philosophy and Economics. They offered me honours in Philosophy and Economics. I chose Economics, which I think is a mistake, in retrospect (or)
[On picking random people from the phonebook not being a random sample of the population of Singapore] Some people don't have phones, you know. Either because they are too poor or because they have 10 handphones already. Can you imagine, 10 phones ringing at the same time?
This is where we move from Philosophy to Statistics. Philosophy is about how to move from the specific to the general... [Philosophy is] Very fun at night with the beer and such, but this is 2 o'clock.
The Moe'zart of mathematics (Mozart)
X bar will converse to μ (converge)
[On talking about convergence in probability] Textbooks don't put this in because then no one would want to buy them. But you must take this course as a pre-requisite, so I can afford to put this in.
[On the chi-square distribution] I have a Greek friend who did a PhD in mathematics. He said it's supposed to be pronounced as 'kee'. But I can't get used to it, so I'm pronouncing it as 'kai'. Most people, even in the US, pronounce it as 'kai'.
[From the person setting the exam] I don't know how much of what I teach you will come out in the exam.
We all wonder why NTUC got the 42,000 square foot compound in Marine Parade, which we all know is a PAP heartground. (stronghold)
[On provision shop owners being crowded out by NTUC] Another option you might not agree with is to turn their outlet into a Cheers. (outlets, Cheers)
[On Sheng Shiong surviving] Mr No Frills... he lives in a warehouse in Marsling. He stays upstairs. He says it saves money because at night he can watch over his stocks... he still drives his lorry.
[On NTUC] If they get out, who will get in? Cold Storage is owned by a Hong Kong group. They have a social mission. *laughs of derision from audience*
The Japanese never let you earn their money. They arrive - Nippon Airways, ANA. A Japanese bus will take them to the hotel - ANA or Daichi. They eat at Japanese restaurants, shop at Japanese outlets. They shop at duty free, then they go home... the Japanese are very insular.
NTUC... they are into everything. Even funerals.
We can talk until the cow comes home (cows come)
Have you been to a hypermarket? Err, I refuse to go in. I'm lost inside. Don't know what to buy.
[Student: I heard there are families that hangs out in Carrefour.] Singapore - we are so pathetic. We have no place to go... Go and shop, let your children frolic. Then you go home - tuition for the next day.
Statistics are like bikinis, what they reveal is interesting, but what they conceal is even more fascinating (written)
Tool park (toolpak)
Data anna'lie'sis (analysis)
The standard deviation should be calculated for the means of means. Just watch out for my grammar. (mean of the)
[On dragging in Excel] Ok. A little more... Ok, you made it.
I used the ver'rai'ance (variance)
[On the computer] Hopefully it is not hanged (has, hung)
[On dexterity in Excel] I do that a lot, but you can do it at home, to practise.
Let me just briefly summarise what we have did (done)
Lighter'rary digest (Literary)
The variance will shrunk (shrink)
[To me] Maybe I should do a photojournal. The pleasures of your body.
***
From what I read, there is a concerted campaign to spread FUD about homosexuals and AIDS in Singapore.
No doubt, this is to acquire political capital to ram the casino through.
***
***
The administration of The Premier Institution of Social Engineering starts screwing people even before matriculation:
"OMG! NUS are such bloody pricks.
i received a letter from them yesterday night [Ed: Saturday night], opened it just now- they want a scholarship app by tues, complete with a principal's report!
HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?
when this is all over i am going to make a voodoo doll and label it 'NUS' and stick millions of pins in it.
seriously. if they screw over someone who hasn't even started freshman year, you've got something coming."
My suggestion: Go to SMU, and send NUS a letter telling them that
Reply: [A letter] like, "SCREW YOU!"
Perhaps this is so, so that in the future we won't complain so much about governmental inefficiency and indeed may appreciate its efficiency compared to NUS.
Then again my favourite year 4 Law Girl says that compared to Bristol, NUS is relatively efficient: "the sunday before sch term opened, exchange supervisor told me tat i cldnt take 4 outta the 5 moduels i had pre-selected
so which ones COULD i take? she also dunno
hv to wait and see... attend ALL the lessons i were interested in, see if they'll take me...
no such thing as add/drop some more
they dive right into syllabus so i had to miss lessons basically
in the end nothing was relaly "my choice"
did a mix of modules tat were left with available slots/ kind convenors"
And Maid Marian in Nottingham concurs: "if u think the nus admin sux, u hafta see notts. then u'll realise what a dream the nus ppl are
they lost my £2k cheque for hall fees then called me a university debtor"
Must be a UK University affliction.
Meanwhile my NTU friend says they blackmail you: if you owe NTU money, they won't tell you but they'll threaten you when exam results are out, refusing to give you your results unless you pay up.
***
Essay grumbling from someone else: "if only people could be graded according to blog content and style of writing"
If only
And on close reading: "i gotta admit, it does over-complicate matters sometimes, life would be easier without all these, but the whole point abt writing modules is to get you to write well about something even if u dont like it"
Good point. If you can write well about uninteresting rubbish you can write well about anything: "the true test of ability and fortitude is to do something u dont like professionally and well". But then this module is not actually about writing and critical thinking, but rather about close reading
Someone on my description of close reading: "it sounds like practical crit on crack"
Someone should go and close read Rorschach inkblots. Would be very interesting to see the results.
I think if there were genuinely something interesting, useful or significant to write about, I wouldn't mind it so much (if at all if there was a genuine problem or complication to analyse), but the thing is that we have nothing real to write about, and so have to come up with what 'problems' which are, at least to normal people, contrived and nonsensical, to dissect and analyse. Jerry Seinfeld might have come up with an excellent sitcom on "nothing", but writing an essay on nothing is much harder.
Perhaps "homework assignments" (ie essays written on specific, often trite questions) are usually uninteresting (especially when they are the umpteenth esaay you've read on the dangers of Science and Technology, all of which sound the same since the writers just mug the points and vomit them out come essay time), but almost all close reading essays are even worse, since they are about nothing (nothing that normal readers care about anyway).
"it's always in FASS or USP classes that i hear so many fako accents!
dun really get them in bizad much
esp Lit/Eng/Philo/Pol Sci haha"
Hmm. I don't notice that.
Module tips: "To those who cannot afford to do another exposure and have not done any SS module, you can do the SSA module Singapore Society. Sociology of Singapore, cynic's style. Very enjoyable, might I say."
SSA1201
"Module Title: SINGAPORE SOCIETY
Module Description: This module introduces students to critical developments in the development of Singapore as a society and nation-state. It enables students to develop skills in understanding and making sense of Singapore society. It also encourages them to develop alternative interpretations of the development of Singapore society. The topics include: the origins of Singapore, ideology and identity, ethnic relations, industrialization, family, gender, religion, the state and civil society. This is a Singapore Studies module and open to students from all faculties."
Sounds interesting indeed. Then again:
"EXPECTATIONS
3. Preparatory Work
a. For each lecture (readings on average 4 hours per week)
b. For each discussion group (additional 2 hours per week over and above the readings)
4. Assignment (1 major term essay assignment - 6 weeks to complete)"
Hmm.
I'm doing my compulsory propaganda module right now (it is probably the best of the 4 available this semester), but I might do this as an unrestricted elective one day. Unfortunately I only have 5 of them (UEs) to play around with. Ah well.
***
Saw this M$N nick:
"The most amazing healing service ever! Muslims converted, aids patients healed, and my hamster is healed!. Glory to GOD!"
Right.
The one with (the) crab(s) suggests
"why not start a [NUS] community for Wo-Hen? I bet you'll have all the girls and the gay men clamouring to join it!"
That would be the *possibly* gay men, not the gay men per se. But maybe I could find someone like Gavin or Carrot Top.
"apropos" sends along this "humorous article I read which reminds me of you":
You may be a fundamentalist atheist if...
I found parts of it humorous too (for one thing, by definition an atheist cannot be a fundamentalist), but I'm not sure if it was for the same reasons that he did.
***
OB markers for Singapore film-makers
Follow the tale of Martyn See Tong Ming who, on submitting a 26 minute documentary on Chee Soon Juan to the Singapore Film Festival, was told that it was a political film and thus illegal. He was then threatened with legal action unless he withdrew the film from the festival.
Various articles on 'political' films in Singapore and related topics (eg Royston Tan's being interrogated by police) are attached.
You break the rules, we break your heads, says MM Lee
"I can assure you that in Singapore, when we decide that they are breaking the rules of the game, the unspoken rules as to how we survive, how we have prospered, then either their head is broken or our bones are broken."
- Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew issuing warning to SIA pilots at the World Brand Forum, CNA, Dec 2, 2003
***
Anal Sex According to the Word of God, Oral Sex According to the Word of God
"The Benefits of Swallowing - Drink of the Living Water
Aside from swallowing semen as a measure to prevent the waste and spillage of seed, ingesting ejaculate can have spiritual benefits, as we will see. Although the Old Testament makes reference to the bitterness of semen (And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water. [Numbers 5:24]), the New Testament casts the act of consuming ejaculate in a much more affirming light, as in the following passage, where Jesus speaks to the woman of Samaria about the gift of “living water”:
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?...15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." (John 4:10-16)
“Living water” in this context refers to semen, which literally is the liquid of life. As Christ indicates, drinking of the “living water” provides a spiritual replenishment for the soul. When the woman asks Jesus where she can get this “water”, he tells her to fetch her husband, clearly with the intention of instructing her on how to fellate him and swallow his semen."
This is both hilarious and instructive, since anyone looking at the text with an open mind would see that their interpretations are at least as correct as commonly accepted ones (if not more so, in some places).
***
Stupid Vending Machine Flash - KPMG interns are too free...
I have found the NUS Temasek Hall Online Social Club - Lut's Haloscan comments thread!
TimeCopy 1.4 - "Timecopy will copy the time, date, timezone, and daylight saving information from your desktop PC to you PalmOS device at each hotsync. Palm clocks are known to drift a little (about 1 second per day), and this way, you don't need to worry about that anymore."
Better than SyncTime, and free too!
Ban Steven Lim from appearing on Singapore Television Petition - "This petition is to be send to Mediacorp to ban Steven Lim from appearing on tv. In case you do not know who he is, check out his site at stevenlim.net . (but warned: just make a brief short visit) What is the intention of banning him? Simple. He is a shame of all Singaporean, and an attention whore."
tower of babel in singapore - "city harvest church, the giant mother of a building in jurong, cost a whopping 47.6 MILLION DOLLARS to build. as they proudly proclaim on their website, the money took the church 4 years to raise, with only 45% of their congregation working. the rest are basically housewives, retirees and kids. WHAT THE FUCK?!!! to add insult to injury, they're bragging about the type of titanium cladding that frames the outside of the building, as its being the first and only in southeast asia. the other building with this sort of titanium facade in the world, is the Guggenheim. yes. the fucking Guggenheim museum. they're also going on about their having the first Broquard fountain in SEA as well. of course Jaques Broquard is the best fountainmaker in the world. and you'll see this fountain, in their impressive opening flash intro at their website, fondly termed 'The Gates of Heaven'. right. so we should go drown ourselves there after having donated all our money to them so they can pay off their Phillip Starck bathrooms huh? yup. you heard me. a church having toilets by phillip starck."
Ah well. If people want to buy Magic Stones, they should be allowed to do so (if there is freedom of information, of course).
Rape as a Capital Crime - "But, if rape was punishable as a capital crime, then you have the unique situation where a rapist realizes that is in his best interest to murder the victim. What are the benefits of leaving the victim alive? Nothing that I can think of, except for whatever utility the rapist gets from withholding murder (which since he just raped the victim, I'm assuming that the rapist is not altruistic, and therefore this won't apply). But the costs of not murdering are high - there is a witness to his crime. So murdering actually becomes the better strategy if rape is punished as a capital crime, since in so doing, it increases the rapist's chances of survival."
Do Democratic Transitions Produce Bad Economic Outcomes?
"Several influential commentators have suggested recently that democratization in developing countries produces political instability, ethnic conflict, and poor economic outcomes... These authors buttress their claims with examples of democratic reforms that led to economic chaos and eventually a collapse back into autocracy. Such anecdotal evidence can be problematic from two perspectives. First, it is not clear how universal the pattern is. Perhaps the vast majority of other countries have had more successful transitions. For example, we rarely hear in these accounts about Mauritius and Botswana, two long term African success stories that also happen to be democratic countries. Second, these anecdotal accounts leave the counterfactual unspecified. Perhaps countries would have been even worse off in the absence of democratic transitions.
Does social science back up the pundits’ claims? We show in this paper that the data do not support the view that democratization is bad for economic performance. Our analysis reveals that major democratic transitions have, if anything, a positive effect on economic growth in the short run. Contrary to the claims of Kaplan, Zakaria, and Chau, this is especially true for the poorest countries of the world and those that are marked by sharp ethnic divisions. Democratization tends to follow periods of low growth rather than precede them. Moreover, democratic transitions are associated with a decline in growth volatility. Systematic analysis therefore uncovers a picture that is considerably more favorable to democratization."
***
Quotes:
The level 200 [modules] noticeboard (2000)
I majored in Philosophy in my undergraduate days. Philosophy and Economics. They offered me honours in Philosophy and Economics. I chose Economics, which I think is a mistake, in retrospect (or)
[On picking random people from the phonebook not being a random sample of the population of Singapore] Some people don't have phones, you know. Either because they are too poor or because they have 10 handphones already. Can you imagine, 10 phones ringing at the same time?
This is where we move from Philosophy to Statistics. Philosophy is about how to move from the specific to the general... [Philosophy is] Very fun at night with the beer and such, but this is 2 o'clock.
The Moe'zart of mathematics (Mozart)
X bar will converse to μ (converge)
[On talking about convergence in probability] Textbooks don't put this in because then no one would want to buy them. But you must take this course as a pre-requisite, so I can afford to put this in.
[On the chi-square distribution] I have a Greek friend who did a PhD in mathematics. He said it's supposed to be pronounced as 'kee'. But I can't get used to it, so I'm pronouncing it as 'kai'. Most people, even in the US, pronounce it as 'kai'.
[From the person setting the exam] I don't know how much of what I teach you will come out in the exam.
We all wonder why NTUC got the 42,000 square foot compound in Marine Parade, which we all know is a PAP heartground. (stronghold)
[On provision shop owners being crowded out by NTUC] Another option you might not agree with is to turn their outlet into a Cheers. (outlets, Cheers)
[On Sheng Shiong surviving] Mr No Frills... he lives in a warehouse in Marsling. He stays upstairs. He says it saves money because at night he can watch over his stocks... he still drives his lorry.
[On NTUC] If they get out, who will get in? Cold Storage is owned by a Hong Kong group. They have a social mission. *laughs of derision from audience*
The Japanese never let you earn their money. They arrive - Nippon Airways, ANA. A Japanese bus will take them to the hotel - ANA or Daichi. They eat at Japanese restaurants, shop at Japanese outlets. They shop at duty free, then they go home... the Japanese are very insular.
NTUC... they are into everything. Even funerals.
We can talk until the cow comes home (cows come)
Have you been to a hypermarket? Err, I refuse to go in. I'm lost inside. Don't know what to buy.
[Student: I heard there are families that hangs out in Carrefour.] Singapore - we are so pathetic. We have no place to go... Go and shop, let your children frolic. Then you go home - tuition for the next day.
Statistics are like bikinis, what they reveal is interesting, but what they conceal is even more fascinating (written)
Tool park (toolpak)
Data anna'lie'sis (analysis)
The standard deviation should be calculated for the means of means. Just watch out for my grammar. (mean of the)
[On dragging in Excel] Ok. A little more... Ok, you made it.
I used the ver'rai'ance (variance)
[On the computer] Hopefully it is not hanged (has, hung)
[On dexterity in Excel] I do that a lot, but you can do it at home, to practise.
Let me just briefly summarise what we have did (done)
Lighter'rary digest (Literary)
The variance will shrunk (shrink)
[To me] Maybe I should do a photojournal. The pleasures of your body.
Post ID: 111073027032691595
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Dear Mdms,
NUS has always supported religious diversity. On the OSA website, one reads that NUS has many religious student societies: 1 Buddhist, 2 Catholic,2 3 Christian, 1 Hindu, 1 Muslim, and 1 Sathya Sai. The various religions of Singapore are thus very well represented. However, according to the 2000 Singapore Census, 14.8% of the population of Singapore has no religion, making freethought the largest religious affiliation in Singapore after Buddhism and Islam.
We felt that it wasn't right that freethinkers, though being the third largest religious group (so to speak) in Singapore, were without a place in NUS to meet and talk to fellow freethinkers. And so we set up, on the IVLE the Freethinkers Community in NUS.
However, though we have managed to contact some fellow freethinkers via word of mouth, we have so far had no means of spreading the word to the NUS population at large. Most of the religious societies in NUS conduct publicity for their activities, so we have come up with some posters advertising our IVLE Community, and are seeking permission to put them up around campus this week.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
*** *** ***
Seah Shuqi Gabriel
*** *** ***
*** *** ***
Freethinkers Community in NUS
***
Freethinkers' Community in NUS - We now have a spartan website, with screenshots showing how to join!
NUS has always supported religious diversity. On the OSA website, one reads that NUS has many religious student societies: 1 Buddhist, 2 Catholic,
We felt that it wasn't right that freethinkers, though being the third largest religious group (so to speak) in Singapore, were without a place in NUS to meet and talk to fellow freethinkers. And so we set up, on the IVLE the Freethinkers Community in NUS.
However, though we have managed to contact some fellow freethinkers via word of mouth, we have so far had no means of spreading the word to the NUS population at large. Most of the religious societies in NUS conduct publicity for their activities, so we have come up with some posters advertising our IVLE Community, and are seeking permission to put them up around campus this week.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
*** *** ***
Seah Shuqi Gabriel
*** *** ***
*** *** ***
Freethinkers Community in NUS
***
Freethinkers' Community in NUS - We now have a spartan website, with screenshots showing how to join!
Post ID: 111081054312089212
Look look look! i'm on the net!!
http://www.flaredance.com/productions_rhythmicity.html
Check under "primeval savagery", "sirens" (jane's piece yay!) and "metamorphosis".
***
http://www.flaredance.com/productions_rhythmicity.html
Check under "primeval savagery", "sirens" (jane's piece yay!) and "metamorphosis".
***
Post ID: 111080607388500983
Sunday, March 13, 2005
"Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity." - Nick Diamos
***
"young lesbians can't be trusted. they all turn straight in JC"
"I hate being the one to have to compile projects because I'm the only one in there who has a competant grasp of english."
Most competant (sic) indeed.
"u dunno pain till u've to compile a grp report with 2 or 3 viet gals in ur team
i actually gave up editting, submitted their rubbish, and got a B- <S
but it was either that or my sanity"
***
One of the two wretched texts I'm cracking my head trying to close read and do an essay on:
Where brain, body, and world collide (Daedalus, Spring 1998 by Clark, Andy)
On Close Reading:
Me: yeah comparative essay sucks
Someone: hahah i know
ive been there
Me: they should just scrap the writing module
or rework it so it's really about writing and critical thinking
rather than [what] it is currently
Someone: hahaha
well one can always hope
Me: yeah right
that'll mean they lose their job
close reading is useful
but to make it the focus of the whole module?!
... it shows you the current state of the humanities in academia
attacking windmills like Don Quixote - blowing up easily resolvable problems and contriving problems
having your head in the clouds while the world moves on below you
Someone: oh yes
sounds too familiar
Someone else: if by close reading, you mean analyzing the arguments of two different people and seeing where they break down, there's nothing wrong with that at all
Me: texts are only so long. no one will bother to insert in countless qualifications and elaborations
if you want to find problems you'll be able to find them if you dig deep enough, and blow them up when normal people would happily resolve, harmonise or rationalise them
Someone else: 'The complication for the motive can simply be that applying the theory to a particular ad unlocks the hidden meaning of the ad, or else demonstrates the sleeper effect, or whatever.'
Me: hidden meaning!
ooh. have you seen any black helicopters?
Analyse arguments - I do that all the time
so it's not that I don't like doing that
if you have to do close reading to find hidden meaning to an ad, then there's something wrong
ad makers don't insert hidden meanings for close readers to find
they insert explicit meanings for target audiences to absorb
I doubt ad makers are so free as to insert hidden meanings for people like you to dissect
Someone else: too bad. i feel sorry for you.
back to my paper.
Me: back to essay
***
ABC - Learn the alphabet in a very unique way.
I first linked this in May 2003, then it was down for a long time. Miraculously, it has now reappeared!
***
"young lesbians can't be trusted. they all turn straight in JC"
"I hate being the one to have to compile projects because I'm the only one in there who has a competant grasp of english."
Most competant (sic) indeed.
"u dunno pain till u've to compile a grp report with 2 or 3 viet gals in ur team
i actually gave up editting, submitted their rubbish, and got a B- <S
but it was either that or my sanity"
***
One of the two wretched texts I'm cracking my head trying to close read and do an essay on:
Where brain, body, and world collide (Daedalus, Spring 1998 by Clark, Andy)
On Close Reading:
Me: yeah comparative essay sucks
Someone: hahah i know
ive been there
Me: they should just scrap the writing module
or rework it so it's really about writing and critical thinking
rather than [what] it is currently
Someone: hahaha
well one can always hope
Me: yeah right
that'll mean they lose their job
close reading is useful
but to make it the focus of the whole module?!
... it shows you the current state of the humanities in academia
attacking windmills like Don Quixote - blowing up easily resolvable problems and contriving problems
having your head in the clouds while the world moves on below you
Someone: oh yes
sounds too familiar
Someone else: if by close reading, you mean analyzing the arguments of two different people and seeing where they break down, there's nothing wrong with that at all
Me: texts are only so long. no one will bother to insert in countless qualifications and elaborations
if you want to find problems you'll be able to find them if you dig deep enough, and blow them up when normal people would happily resolve, harmonise or rationalise them
Someone else: 'The complication for the motive can simply be that applying the theory to a particular ad unlocks the hidden meaning of the ad, or else demonstrates the sleeper effect, or whatever.'
Me: hidden meaning!
ooh. have you seen any black helicopters?
Analyse arguments - I do that all the time
so it's not that I don't like doing that
if you have to do close reading to find hidden meaning to an ad, then there's something wrong
ad makers don't insert hidden meanings for close readers to find
they insert explicit meanings for target audiences to absorb
I doubt ad makers are so free as to insert hidden meanings for people like you to dissect
Someone else: too bad. i feel sorry for you.
back to my paper.
Me: back to essay
***
ABC - Learn the alphabet in a very unique way.
I first linked this in May 2003, then it was down for a long time. Miraculously, it has now reappeared!
Post ID: 111070175762577092
"I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark." - Dick Gregory
***
FCINUS (Freethought Community in NUS)
"Event Title: Is a relationship with God ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY??
Organizer: NUS Campus Crusade for Christ (NUSCCC)
Description: Nowadays, it seems to be fashionable to be "God-less". Why do I need God? After all, isn't God just something NICE TO HAVE?? Life is fine without one for all these years anyway....But is "Free-thinking" really a logically acceptable way to live? Come and find out for yourself, and decide after the meeting - IS IT ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR MANKIND TO KNOW GOD??"
The time is now, the day is here!
To no one's surprise, this event is organised by the CCC. I notice that they used the words "logically acceptable". Well, the last time the had the temerity to claim that they would show "scientifically why god exists and why jesus loves you", and it turned out to be a bait-and-switch (what's new?).
(Those interested in finding out more or in aiding the war effort should contact me on ICQ/M$N, drop me a mail or leave a comment below)
***
Mathematics - Counting
Question: If one rolls a 10 sided die twice and multiplies the results of the rolls, how many unique results can one potentially get?
Apparently the answer is 42 - one person coded a program to get this result; 2 others used brute force method (listing everything out).
***
Overheard
"The trick is not in blindly following every management fad that surfaces whenever some enterprising guru invents a new set of principles to enrich himself - yet another variation of some seven pillars of wisdom."
"Retirement is being able to say what your former colleagues would love to utter themselves but are too shy to."
- Former Singapore Airlines CEO Cheong Choong Kong
"The discovery that tendencies to altruism are shaped by benefits to genes is one of the most disturbing in the history of science. When I first grasped it, I slept badly for many nights, trying to find some alternative that did not so roughly challenge my sense of good and evil. Understanding this discovery can undermine commitment to morality - it seems silly to restrain oneself if moral behavior is just another strategy for advancing the interests of one's genes. Some students, I am embarrassed to say, have left my courses with a naïve notion of the selfish-gene theory that seemed to them to justify selfish behavior, despite my best efforts to explain the naturalistic fallacy." - Professor Randolph Nesse
On home 'ownership' in Singapore:
"It is not ownership. It is a 99-year lease with a myriad of conditions." - Singapore Serf in LiveJournal
***
Conversations
Friend: hey the [writing] conference timetable has a "kimberly" on it
that's not u right
why is your msn nick 'kimberly'?
isn't ur name gabriel
Me: haha you don't know?
look at my msn pic
Friend: who is that guy
power rangers
Me: it's a girl lah
Friend: oh i see... u know after seeing your favourite long haired prince and descartes pictures, as well as ur own long hair, no wonder i thought this power rangers girl is a guy too :P
so her name is kimberly... ok
so that kimberly in our timetable is a girl?
hahaha... i thought she's a guy too
Someone else on reading that: amy jo johnson does NOT look like descartes or wohen nankan
Me quoting a review of NUS modules to a Chemical Engineering student: This module is really very 'free'. Basically you can skip all the lectures and still won't be at a disadvantage.
can skip USP mods meh
Someone: yah i skip all the *** [lectures and tutorials]
free topic mah
Me: do they notice you skipping?
Someone: yes of course. the prof knows
Me: he doesn't mind ah
Someone: i don't know! i haven't seen him in 2 months.
he hasn't sent me any threatening mails
Me: no wonder you're always so free
Maybe I should set up a page reviewing the NUS modules I've done. Then again I already have enough incriminating things online, heh.
***
Frilly skirts
I asked Screwed Up Girl why so many girls wore frilly skirts. Her answer: "They make girls feel like princesses".
Now, even if I didn't know her to be the Purveyor of Inaccurate Information, I would be suspicious at this kind of cock - there is no other adjective in English, Hokkien or all the other tongues of men for this - answer, especially since I think it makes them look more like curtains. And so I took this question before a distinguished panel:
Critic 1 did not know and thought it made them look like "cupcake dolls". Now, for all that I call her "my No. 1 fan: She with dyed past-shoulder length hair that used to be rebonded, a serious attitude problem, curses freely and loves to wear dominatrix-style pumps, but who disavows the title of "ah lian" (tamade to you too)", at least she doesn't wear frilly skirts, so there's a point in her favour.
Critic 2 said she and her friend were discussing this, and said they didn't know. She also said frilly skirts were "stupid and unflattering"; "those skirts are damn ugly".
Critic 3 postulated that "celebrities wear and look good and they hope by wearing it they'll look, especially good or something".
Then again maybe I asked the wrong crowd. Critics 1-3 would never wear frilly skirts. Maybe I need to talk to some SACSALs (Shrill, Anorexic, Chinese-Speaking Ah Lians) (purely for research purposes, of course).
***
The Muslim Exception
heathcliff24 gets acquainted with the Muslim Exception:
"The father: YOUR DOGS ARE DISTURBING US. WE ARE MUSLIMS, DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU STUPID? WHY DON'T YOU GO INSIDE?
I: The dogs ARE ON THEIR LEASH! Besides, we came here first, there are so many empty seats elsewhere. Why did you choose the one beside us?
The father: So what?"
***
Handsome Boy Steven Lim
Steven Lim updates:
It seems he now offers 5 services (up from 3). The new ones:
- Express Courier/ Delivery Services
- Webpage Conceptualization, Design and Creation Services (Seeing his site, err... No thanks)
New products:
- Steven Lim's autographed http://www.stevenlim.net T-shirts!!!! (One has a picture of him in a 'snow hat')
- Couple T-shirts - T-shirts with the couple's picture on them ($60 a pair?! Wth. I can get them much cheaper elsewhere. And the samples look like they have him and his 16 year old girlfriend on them)
The prize for the "Find Steven Lim" Digital Photo Contest is $500. Wah, maybe I should try to take part.
***
Technology
I was observing my brother in law browsing through his collection of 459 mostly blur ('artistic') pictures in iShit (or whatever it's called), and noticed that, more than the lack of a scroll whell, more so than that of a right mouse button, was greatly hindering his progress.
How many Mac users are acquainted with the joys of scroll wheels, I wonder.
LangaList Std Edition 2005-03-07: Cheap Shot?
"
When I was back in the world of corporate publishing, and tracking the minutia of PC companies, Microsoft was spending more on user testing than any other software company--- bar none. I have no reason to believe that that's changed.
Small example: A decade ago, Microsoft found that users were intimidated by long streams of startup messages from the PC as different components woke up and came on line; and so Microsoft hid them behind a startup graphic. (You really only need to see the startup messages when something's going wrong.) For many years, the Windows startup screen was derided by the Linux community as a sign of Windows' wimpishness. Most distros of Linux continued to proudly flash a text message from every tiny subsystem or software component as they woke up or shut down. ("Probing SCSI..." "Found CPU..." "Init: entering runlevel 5"... etc.) But now--- surprise!--- more and more Linuxes are hiding this complexity from the end user; finally recognizing that most of the time, for most of the users, those messages are just so much screen clutter. In short: Microsoft was right.
Microsoft also was right about the location and function of the Start button; in fact, it's been copied on almost all the non-Windows graphical interfaces, too, including most Linux GUIs."
***
String theory
Escape from the universe
"The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a "wormhole" into a parallel universe? The idea seems like science fiction, but it is consistent with the laws of physics and biology. Here's how to do it:
Create a baby universe
According to inflation, just a few ounces of matter might suffice to create a baby universe. This is because the positive energy of matter cancels out the negative energy of gravity. If the universe is closed, then they cancel out exactly. In some sense, the universe may be a free lunch, as Guth has emphasised. Strange as it may seem, it requires no net energy to create an entire universe. Baby universes are in principle created naturally when a certain region of space-time becomes unstable and enters a state called the "false vacuum," which destabilises the fabric of space-time. An advanced civilisation might do this deliberately by concentrating energy in a single region. This would require either compressing matter to a density of 1080g/cm3, or heating it to 1029 degrees kelvin.
Send a nanobot to recreate civilisation
An advanced civilisation might want to send enough information through the wormhole to create a "nanobot," a self-replicating atomic-sized machine, built with nanotechnology. It would be able to travel at near the speed of light because it would be only the size of a molecule. It would land on a barren moon, and then use the raw materials to create a chemical factory which could create millions of copies of itself.... these robot probes would create huge biotechnology laboratories. The DNA sequences of the probes' creators would have been carefully recorded, and the robots would have been designed to inject this information into incubators, which would then clone the entire species. An advanced civilisation may also code the personalities and memories of its inhabitants and inject this into the clones, enabling the entire race to be reincarnated."
***
Links
Sleeping Beauty - "In 19th-century England, Victorian publishers further sanitized fairy tales, toning down the violence yet again and simplifying the narratives. Victorian readers wanted these stories to be charming, to reflect the gender roles of the time, and above all to instruct proper upper- and middle-class children in appropriate morality. Innuendo replaced the overt and troubling activity of carnal sex and violence . . . but as modern writers from Angela Carter to Marina Warner have pointed out, these underlying themes are tenacious. Looking at the original German language version of the Grimms' "Little Briar Rose," Heinz pulled out a staccato list of suggestive language: the hedge is "penetrated," Briar Rose is "pricked," and she sleeps not in a shrine or a wooded cottage but enclosed within a phallic tower."
The USB Auditor - "With the USB Auditor you can immediately begin capturing critical data that gives you instant answers to the who and what regarding all USB ports in your organization
The USB Auditor is a non-intrusive clientless software solution that captures the critical data that you need from each USB port. The USB Auditor creates a report displaying the USB devices currently connected to your network and those that were recently connected. For even more convenience, the USB Auditor can export this report to an MS Excel file pre configured with the most commonly used queries."
I'm sure the SAF's MSD would like to get its hands on this software to stop the bothersome dongles (ie Thumbdrives) (heh heh)almost essential for daily work in many SAF offices that pose a grave security threat.
'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits' - "A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year."
Angelina's Lesbian Sex Confessions - "Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie has boasted that she is an expert in lesbian sex. Tomb Raider star Angelina, who is bisexual, says she knows what women like."
For some reason I was amused by this
It’s Not Dangerous - "Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career"
Calvin and Hobbes archive from Nov 1985 to Dec 1995
***
NUS stuff
"Event Title: Social Services Sector: The Next Pillar of Growth- An NKF Perspective
Description: There are myths and there are myths about the social services sector.
These are perennially poor organisations that survive on the vagaries of human compassion. There are no structures or business models in the sector.
No good salaries, no career growth, and no scope for specialists. In fact, philanthropy and career just does not go together. It is the place to be if you are an industry reject, or if you are benevolent and compassionate, but not interested in success.
In his talk, NKF Chief Executive Officer Mr TT Durai will shred all these myths and discuss a lot more – on the business of charity, about career prospects in the sector, volunteerism, and regarding the importance of growth of the sector. He will discuss how you can earn a good living and, at the same time, do your bit in supporting humanity." [Ed: Emphases mine]
All is made clear.
I have a classmate who, every half a minute or so, makes a half-humming sort of sound in his throat, or seems to half-mutter a syllable. Quite disturbing.
Quotes:
Morning class. [The] mid-term is over. Some of you don't want to come to class. It's alright.
They ban smoking on the campus. It is very costly to you. You go all over the campus looking for secluded places to smoke.
You want a break? Ok, come back in 2 minutes.
[On a level 2000 module] I'm doing a lot of things in this lecture that cover things in level 3000.
[On monogamy (?)] Gibbons. They have these really interesting songs to tell each other about what happened last night.
This is an instable situation (unstable)
[Student: There's almost no cost to siring a child] At the age of 80? You just drop dead... get a heart attack [while in the act of congress]... Risk of death during childbirth or conception is low... unless it's a very timid male. He dies from the horror [of witnessing childbirth]. 2 chances to get a heart attack.
Pushing off all the little deers (deer)
One male can usually fertilise many males (females)
Males are more likely [than females] to die. [Student: Why?] There's a whole lot of arguments about that. Because they act like idiots, mostly. [Someone: {They} work harder... women: relax at home the whole day]
I have lots of stupid things to do. Careers 2005 fair: People asking me what's the difference between chemistry and applied chemistry. At the back of my head [I'm thinking]: I have absolutely no idea. Fortunately I had a book there.
[On a journal article] Unfortunately I'm not allowed to send it to you due to copyright reasons. You can download it yourself for private use, which I'm sure you're all dying to do.
You cannot mist it (miss)
It is envy'saged that in the future everything will be competitive (envisaged)
[On naked molerats at the Singapore Zoo] You can use the queen molerat lying on the poor, oppressed males.
A cheating male... can lay his own eggs [Professor: Males don't lay eggs.] Oh.
The female isn't the oppressed one. It's the males. They all want to be queens. [Student 2: Huh?] Oops. [Student 3: Freud's heart would've been broken] (???)
[On the naked mole rats] They're the world's most beautiful animals. Ugly in video and ugly in reality too.
[Video narrator: The Queen prevents female workers from reproducing by producing a hormone in her urine, which the females get exposed to when they use the colony latrine.] So be wary of public bathrooms.
[On worker ants being female] You can astonish your family by saying: 'That's a female ant.' When they ask how you know: 'I look at the private parts.'
[On the fallaciousness of the common naive moralistic tales of hardworking and subservient ants living in harmony and working for the common good, and the implication of this being a laudable model for human societies] So it's a war out there. You think they're all working for the common good, but it's a war.
[On the secret war in ant colonies between workers and the Queen to skew the sex ratio either way] I always have to put this in. From an Evolutionary point of view it makes perfect sense. Intelligent design cannot explain this. This is what good science can do [- explain and predict]... Yes, natural selection rules. *Throws a punch into the air*
They might be es'strange'd brothers (estranged)
If your mother comes up to you and wants to borrow a hundred dollars, you will lend it to her quite easily. If a stranger in the street comes up, you won't borrow him a hundred dollars. [Student: That's because you can track down {your mother}... [Students from] business administration... (lend)
[Me on genetic altruism in the Great Apes: How do you know it's genetically based?] Because they don't have 'Our Shared Values' on the back of their notebooks.
[On R. Nesse being disturbed that altruism was shaped by Evolution] I don't believe he slept badly. When I first found out about it I thought it was very interesting... knowing the future of altruism is assured, I sleep better at night.
Snapper / Snaypearl (Snapple)
You can read as many modules as you want to, to make your fees worth... to make your money's worth (get)
There was a year when the President of the Economics Society was not an Economics major. He was a Political Science major.
***
FCINUS (Freethought Community in NUS)
"Event Title: Is a relationship with God ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY??
Organizer: NUS Campus Crusade for Christ (NUSCCC)
Description: Nowadays, it seems to be fashionable to be "God-less". Why do I need God? After all, isn't God just something NICE TO HAVE?? Life is fine without one for all these years anyway....But is "Free-thinking" really a logically acceptable way to live? Come and find out for yourself, and decide after the meeting - IS IT ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR MANKIND TO KNOW GOD??"
The time is now, the day is here!
To no one's surprise, this event is organised by the CCC. I notice that they used the words "logically acceptable". Well, the last time the had the temerity to claim that they would show "scientifically why god exists and why jesus loves you", and it turned out to be a bait-and-switch (what's new?).
(Those interested in finding out more or in aiding the war effort should contact me on ICQ/M$N, drop me a mail or leave a comment below)
***
Mathematics - Counting
Question: If one rolls a 10 sided die twice and multiplies the results of the rolls, how many unique results can one potentially get?
Apparently the answer is 42 - one person coded a program to get this result; 2 others used brute force method (listing everything out).
***
Overheard
"The trick is not in blindly following every management fad that surfaces whenever some enterprising guru invents a new set of principles to enrich himself - yet another variation of some seven pillars of wisdom."
"Retirement is being able to say what your former colleagues would love to utter themselves but are too shy to."
- Former Singapore Airlines CEO Cheong Choong Kong
"The discovery that tendencies to altruism are shaped by benefits to genes is one of the most disturbing in the history of science. When I first grasped it, I slept badly for many nights, trying to find some alternative that did not so roughly challenge my sense of good and evil. Understanding this discovery can undermine commitment to morality - it seems silly to restrain oneself if moral behavior is just another strategy for advancing the interests of one's genes. Some students, I am embarrassed to say, have left my courses with a naïve notion of the selfish-gene theory that seemed to them to justify selfish behavior, despite my best efforts to explain the naturalistic fallacy." - Professor Randolph Nesse
On home 'ownership' in Singapore:
"It is not ownership. It is a 99-year lease with a myriad of conditions." - Singapore Serf in LiveJournal
***
Conversations
Friend: hey the [writing] conference timetable has a "kimberly" on it
that's not u right
why is your msn nick 'kimberly'?
isn't ur name gabriel
Me: haha you don't know?
look at my msn pic
Friend: who is that guy
power rangers
Me: it's a girl lah
Friend: oh i see... u know after seeing your favourite long haired prince and descartes pictures, as well as ur own long hair, no wonder i thought this power rangers girl is a guy too :P
so her name is kimberly... ok
so that kimberly in our timetable is a girl?
hahaha... i thought she's a guy too
Someone else on reading that: amy jo johnson does NOT look like descartes or wohen nankan
Me quoting a review of NUS modules to a Chemical Engineering student: This module is really very 'free'. Basically you can skip all the lectures and still won't be at a disadvantage.
can skip USP mods meh
Someone: yah i skip all the *** [lectures and tutorials]
free topic mah
Me: do they notice you skipping?
Someone: yes of course. the prof knows
Me: he doesn't mind ah
Someone: i don't know! i haven't seen him in 2 months.
he hasn't sent me any threatening mails
Me: no wonder you're always so free
Maybe I should set up a page reviewing the NUS modules I've done. Then again I already have enough incriminating things online, heh.
***
Frilly skirts
I asked Screwed Up Girl why so many girls wore frilly skirts. Her answer: "They make girls feel like princesses".
Now, even if I didn't know her to be the Purveyor of Inaccurate Information, I would be suspicious at this kind of cock - there is no other adjective in English, Hokkien or all the other tongues of men for this - answer, especially since I think it makes them look more like curtains. And so I took this question before a distinguished panel:
Critic 1 did not know and thought it made them look like "cupcake dolls". Now, for all that I call her "my No. 1 fan: She with dyed past-shoulder length hair that used to be rebonded, a serious attitude problem, curses freely and loves to wear dominatrix-style pumps, but who disavows the title of "ah lian" (tamade to you too)", at least she doesn't wear frilly skirts, so there's a point in her favour.
Critic 2 said she and her friend were discussing this, and said they didn't know. She also said frilly skirts were "stupid and unflattering"; "those skirts are damn ugly".
Critic 3 postulated that "celebrities wear and look good and they hope by wearing it they'll look, especially good or something".
Then again maybe I asked the wrong crowd. Critics 1-3 would never wear frilly skirts. Maybe I need to talk to some SACSALs (Shrill, Anorexic, Chinese-Speaking Ah Lians) (purely for research purposes, of course).
***
The Muslim Exception
heathcliff24 gets acquainted with the Muslim Exception:
"The father: YOUR DOGS ARE DISTURBING US. WE ARE MUSLIMS, DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU STUPID? WHY DON'T YOU GO INSIDE?
I: The dogs ARE ON THEIR LEASH! Besides, we came here first, there are so many empty seats elsewhere. Why did you choose the one beside us?
The father: So what?"
***
Handsome Boy Steven Lim
Steven Lim updates:
It seems he now offers 5 services (up from 3). The new ones:
- Express Courier/ Delivery Services
- Webpage Conceptualization, Design and Creation Services (Seeing his site, err... No thanks)
New products:
- Steven Lim's autographed http://www.stevenlim.net T-shirts!!!! (One has a picture of him in a 'snow hat')
- Couple T-shirts - T-shirts with the couple's picture on them ($60 a pair?! Wth. I can get them much cheaper elsewhere. And the samples look like they have him and his 16 year old girlfriend on them)
The prize for the "Find Steven Lim" Digital Photo Contest is $500. Wah, maybe I should try to take part.
***
Technology
I was observing my brother in law browsing through his collection of 459 mostly blur ('artistic') pictures in iShit (or whatever it's called), and noticed that, more than the lack of a scroll whell, more so than that of a right mouse button, was greatly hindering his progress.
How many Mac users are acquainted with the joys of scroll wheels, I wonder.
LangaList Std Edition 2005-03-07: Cheap Shot?
"
In the story about using an install program to uninstall you remarked "Using a 'setup' program to *UN*install software might seem strange, Roy, but it makes perfect sense when you remember that Office is from Microsoft, the company that makes you use the 'Start' menu to stop your PC.
Raymond Chen (a Microsoft engineer) has a Microsoft blog ( http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/07/22/54559.aspx ) where he talks about many things and this is one he has mentioned in the past. This action is not by chance or perversion, but the result of a lot of user testing. Users would go to the Start button when they want to shut down. It is like a home base.
Microsoft is not perfect, but when it comes to responding to customers and users, I believe they have no peer.
When I was back in the world of corporate publishing, and tracking the minutia of PC companies, Microsoft was spending more on user testing than any other software company--- bar none. I have no reason to believe that that's changed.
Small example: A decade ago, Microsoft found that users were intimidated by long streams of startup messages from the PC as different components woke up and came on line; and so Microsoft hid them behind a startup graphic. (You really only need to see the startup messages when something's going wrong.) For many years, the Windows startup screen was derided by the Linux community as a sign of Windows' wimpishness. Most distros of Linux continued to proudly flash a text message from every tiny subsystem or software component as they woke up or shut down. ("Probing SCSI..." "Found CPU..." "Init: entering runlevel 5"... etc.) But now--- surprise!--- more and more Linuxes are hiding this complexity from the end user; finally recognizing that most of the time, for most of the users, those messages are just so much screen clutter. In short: Microsoft was right.
Microsoft also was right about the location and function of the Start button; in fact, it's been copied on almost all the non-Windows graphical interfaces, too, including most Linux GUIs."
***
String theory
Escape from the universe
"The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a "wormhole" into a parallel universe? The idea seems like science fiction, but it is consistent with the laws of physics and biology. Here's how to do it:
Create a baby universe
According to inflation, just a few ounces of matter might suffice to create a baby universe. This is because the positive energy of matter cancels out the negative energy of gravity. If the universe is closed, then they cancel out exactly. In some sense, the universe may be a free lunch, as Guth has emphasised. Strange as it may seem, it requires no net energy to create an entire universe. Baby universes are in principle created naturally when a certain region of space-time becomes unstable and enters a state called the "false vacuum," which destabilises the fabric of space-time. An advanced civilisation might do this deliberately by concentrating energy in a single region. This would require either compressing matter to a density of 1080g/cm3, or heating it to 1029 degrees kelvin.
Send a nanobot to recreate civilisation
An advanced civilisation might want to send enough information through the wormhole to create a "nanobot," a self-replicating atomic-sized machine, built with nanotechnology. It would be able to travel at near the speed of light because it would be only the size of a molecule. It would land on a barren moon, and then use the raw materials to create a chemical factory which could create millions of copies of itself.... these robot probes would create huge biotechnology laboratories. The DNA sequences of the probes' creators would have been carefully recorded, and the robots would have been designed to inject this information into incubators, which would then clone the entire species. An advanced civilisation may also code the personalities and memories of its inhabitants and inject this into the clones, enabling the entire race to be reincarnated."
***
Links
Sleeping Beauty - "In 19th-century England, Victorian publishers further sanitized fairy tales, toning down the violence yet again and simplifying the narratives. Victorian readers wanted these stories to be charming, to reflect the gender roles of the time, and above all to instruct proper upper- and middle-class children in appropriate morality. Innuendo replaced the overt and troubling activity of carnal sex and violence . . . but as modern writers from Angela Carter to Marina Warner have pointed out, these underlying themes are tenacious. Looking at the original German language version of the Grimms' "Little Briar Rose," Heinz pulled out a staccato list of suggestive language: the hedge is "penetrated," Briar Rose is "pricked," and she sleeps not in a shrine or a wooded cottage but enclosed within a phallic tower."
The USB Auditor - "With the USB Auditor you can immediately begin capturing critical data that gives you instant answers to the who and what regarding all USB ports in your organization
The USB Auditor is a non-intrusive clientless software solution that captures the critical data that you need from each USB port. The USB Auditor creates a report displaying the USB devices currently connected to your network and those that were recently connected. For even more convenience, the USB Auditor can export this report to an MS Excel file pre configured with the most commonly used queries."
I'm sure the SAF's MSD would like to get its hands on this software to stop the bothersome dongles (ie Thumbdrives) (heh heh)
'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits' - "A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year."
Angelina's Lesbian Sex Confessions - "Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie has boasted that she is an expert in lesbian sex. Tomb Raider star Angelina, who is bisexual, says she knows what women like."
For some reason I was amused by this
It’s Not Dangerous - "Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career"
Calvin and Hobbes archive from Nov 1985 to Dec 1995
***
NUS stuff
"Event Title: Social Services Sector: The Next Pillar of Growth- An NKF Perspective
Description: There are myths and there are myths about the social services sector.
These are perennially poor organisations that survive on the vagaries of human compassion. There are no structures or business models in the sector.
No good salaries, no career growth, and no scope for specialists. In fact, philanthropy and career just does not go together. It is the place to be if you are an industry reject, or if you are benevolent and compassionate, but not interested in success.
In his talk, NKF Chief Executive Officer Mr TT Durai will shred all these myths and discuss a lot more – on the business of charity, about career prospects in the sector, volunteerism, and regarding the importance of growth of the sector. He will discuss how you can earn a good living and, at the same time, do your bit in supporting humanity." [Ed: Emphases mine]
All is made clear.
I have a classmate who, every half a minute or so, makes a half-humming sort of sound in his throat, or seems to half-mutter a syllable. Quite disturbing.
Quotes:
Morning class. [The] mid-term is over. Some of you don't want to come to class. It's alright.
They ban smoking on the campus. It is very costly to you. You go all over the campus looking for secluded places to smoke.
You want a break? Ok, come back in 2 minutes.
[On a level 2000 module] I'm doing a lot of things in this lecture that cover things in level 3000.
[On monogamy (?)] Gibbons. They have these really interesting songs to tell each other about what happened last night.
This is an instable situation (unstable)
[Student: There's almost no cost to siring a child] At the age of 80? You just drop dead... get a heart attack [while in the act of congress]... Risk of death during childbirth or conception is low... unless it's a very timid male. He dies from the horror [of witnessing childbirth]. 2 chances to get a heart attack.
Pushing off all the little deers (deer)
One male can usually fertilise many males (females)
Males are more likely [than females] to die. [Student: Why?] There's a whole lot of arguments about that. Because they act like idiots, mostly. [Someone: {They} work harder... women: relax at home the whole day]
I have lots of stupid things to do. Careers 2005 fair: People asking me what's the difference between chemistry and applied chemistry. At the back of my head [I'm thinking]: I have absolutely no idea. Fortunately I had a book there.
[On a journal article] Unfortunately I'm not allowed to send it to you due to copyright reasons. You can download it yourself for private use, which I'm sure you're all dying to do.
You cannot mist it (miss)
It is envy'saged that in the future everything will be competitive (envisaged)
[On naked molerats at the Singapore Zoo] You can use the queen molerat lying on the poor, oppressed males.
A cheating male... can lay his own eggs [Professor: Males don't lay eggs.] Oh.
The female isn't the oppressed one. It's the males. They all want to be queens. [Student 2: Huh?] Oops. [Student 3: Freud's heart would've been broken] (???)
[On the naked mole rats] They're the world's most beautiful animals. Ugly in video and ugly in reality too.
[Video narrator: The Queen prevents female workers from reproducing by producing a hormone in her urine, which the females get exposed to when they use the colony latrine.] So be wary of public bathrooms.
[On worker ants being female] You can astonish your family by saying: 'That's a female ant.' When they ask how you know: 'I look at the private parts.'
[On the fallaciousness of the common naive moralistic tales of hardworking and subservient ants living in harmony and working for the common good, and the implication of this being a laudable model for human societies] So it's a war out there. You think they're all working for the common good, but it's a war.
[On the secret war in ant colonies between workers and the Queen to skew the sex ratio either way] I always have to put this in. From an Evolutionary point of view it makes perfect sense. Intelligent design cannot explain this. This is what good science can do [- explain and predict]... Yes, natural selection rules. *Throws a punch into the air*
They might be es'strange'd brothers (estranged)
If your mother comes up to you and wants to borrow a hundred dollars, you will lend it to her quite easily. If a stranger in the street comes up, you won't borrow him a hundred dollars. [Student: That's because you can track down {your mother}... [Students from] business administration... (lend)
[Me on genetic altruism in the Great Apes: How do you know it's genetically based?] Because they don't have 'Our Shared Values' on the back of their notebooks.
[On R. Nesse being disturbed that altruism was shaped by Evolution] I don't believe he slept badly. When I first found out about it I thought it was very interesting... knowing the future of altruism is assured, I sleep better at night.
Snapper / Snaypearl (Snapple)
You can read as many modules as you want to, to make your fees worth... to make your money's worth (get)
There was a year when the President of the Economics Society was not an Economics major. He was a Political Science major.
Post ID: 111055244370254616
Saturday, March 12, 2005
"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy." - George Carlin
***
My brother in law and I were walking out of Paragon after lunch at Ding Tai Feng (at which he ordered way too much because he was "hungry", though we didn't manage to beat the record of $80 at California Pizza Kitchen that we'd set in a previous week), when we were beset by a sombre-looking ponytailed Nanyang schoolgirl, one of a flock of ravenous birds of prey seeking donations.
As I am wont to do nowadays, I asked what the donations would be used for, and got a vague reply: "helping children with chronic diseases". I asked what sort of chronic diseases, and she said cancer. Sensing her dearth of knowledge regarding the charity, I failed her on my "flag day worthiness test", in which I ask the people accosting me some basic questions about the charity so I know my money won't be used to fund MILF efforts. So in the end my brother in law donated some coins to her.
I think that in the future, when ponytailed schoolgirls ask me for donations, I shall tell them that I'll give them a buck if they let me tug their hair!
Panelist 1: Schoolgirls will take you for some molester. I think you are developing into a psycho... It starts small, and by the time you know it, you're gone too far.
I thought I was already psycho.
Panelist 2: You'll be surprised at their desperation, You'll go broke in no time.
Panelist 3: You.. are evil to e core. Hey what if they ask to see yr moobs?
Then they'd have to pay *me*.
Panelist 4: Don't be accused of harassment!
It's a quid pro quo!
Panelist 5: u got sthg against schgirls w ponytails?:)
Panelist 6: Ha ha... A buck for a tug? That's trying to stretch your buck!
Panelist 7: That's prostitution dude, just on a smaller scale.
Panelist 8: I think that's perverse.
When have I not been perverse? Heh heh.
***
My brother in law and I were walking out of Paragon after lunch at Ding Tai Feng (at which he ordered way too much because he was "hungry", though we didn't manage to beat the record of $80 at California Pizza Kitchen that we'd set in a previous week), when we were beset by a sombre-looking ponytailed Nanyang schoolgirl, one of a flock of ravenous birds of prey seeking donations.
As I am wont to do nowadays, I asked what the donations would be used for, and got a vague reply: "helping children with chronic diseases". I asked what sort of chronic diseases, and she said cancer. Sensing her dearth of knowledge regarding the charity, I failed her on my "flag day worthiness test", in which I ask the people accosting me some basic questions about the charity so I know my money won't be used to fund MILF efforts. So in the end my brother in law donated some coins to her.
I think that in the future, when ponytailed schoolgirls ask me for donations, I shall tell them that I'll give them a buck if they let me tug their hair!
Panelist 1: Schoolgirls will take you for some molester. I think you are developing into a psycho... It starts small, and by the time you know it, you're gone too far.
I thought I was already psycho.
Panelist 2: You'll be surprised at their desperation, You'll go broke in no time.
Panelist 3: You.. are evil to e core. Hey what if they ask to see yr moobs?
Then they'd have to pay *me*.
Panelist 4: Don't be accused of harassment!
It's a quid pro quo!
Panelist 5: u got sthg against schgirls w ponytails?:)
Panelist 6: Ha ha... A buck for a tug? That's trying to stretch your buck!
Panelist 7: That's prostitution dude, just on a smaller scale.
Panelist 8: I think that's perverse.
When have I not been perverse? Heh heh.
Post ID: 111060532340192276
Friday, March 11, 2005
50MB trailers rock (download link).
[Ed: The post below this was actually published after the current post, but I've backdated it so people will be lulled into a false sense of complacency by the screencap. Heh heh.]
Post ID: 111052906106486195
"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure." - Mark Twain
***
Sheena complains that my posts are too cheem (and others that they are too long). Yet I get 400+ hits a day. There must be a helluva lotta masochists out there.
***
"There's two ways to end up with this result. Either you picked the silliest possible answer to each question, or you answered honestly, and happen to be hyperactive, manic, loon. Assuming you answered honestly, your profile is as follows: You are the 100-sided dice, also known as the legendary Zocchihedron. You are the bit of data that registers so far off the chart that the average person doesn't even know you exist. You are desperate for attention and will get it any way you can. Your jokes have the lowest laugh ratio, but you go for quantity, not quality. Once you get started on a pointless tangent, it takes a group effort to bring you back to reality and make you shut up. You are a distraction who is permanently distracted. You consider yourself silly and entertaining, but everyone else complains about how lame and annoying you are. The one secret they aren't telling you, is how they sometimes actually miss the noise when you're gone."
***
The Body: AIDS Survival Project: Survival News -- Cruising With Lazarus: The Fourth Annual 'Just Shut Up' Awards By David Salyer
"Every year, people all over the world say stridently stupid, misinformed or absurd things about HIV and AIDS. Here's a list of some folks who make you wonder what, if anything, they were thinking before they opened their mouths in 2004. Their comments are best met with three little words: Just shut up.
Balaji Sadasivan
The Southeast Asian country of Singapore is one of the world's most prosperous nations. Home to a little more than four million people, figures from the World Health Organization tell us that about 4,000 Singaporeans are living with HIV. Speaking publicly last November, Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan reported that HIV/AIDS cases were doubling every three to four years. Sadasivan blames gay men for the spread of HIV and claims nongovernmental agencies like Action for AIDS (AfA) are not doing enough to promote safer sexual practices. Naturally, he fails to acknowledge that gay sex is still illegal in many parts of Singapore (as are oral and anal sex) and that agencies like AfA are routinely prohibited from distributing brochures or condom packs that would lead to education and prevention. "We must recognize there are conservative people in Singapore and there's no need to say the only way to educate people is to try to do it in an in-your-face approach," Sadasivan protests. "To educate people, you don't have to be offensive," he rambled further until finally warning, "If we do not act, by 2010 we may have more than 15,000 HIV persons in Singapore." Does he have a plan, a strategy? Nope. His job would seem to be pointing fingers and declaring, "Sexual behavior is a private thing, it's something people don't want to talk about. It's not discussed in polite society.""
He's going to get sued, then the "AIDS Survival Project" will not be able to carry out its mission properly.
***
Got sent the following:
NoMarriage.com - Rachel's "Perfect Guy" Qualities List
"Rachel is a real girl. The list was taken from her website. Rachel is a typical young American woman. Keep in mind that she expects everything on the list simply because she has vagina.
*135 mostly trivial qualities, almost all described in 5 words or under*"
This is followed by:
"Here is a typical 28yo American woman's personals ad. Interestingly, the only things she says about herself is that she is lazy, bitchy, ugly, and does not like giving blowjobs.
This is my ideal guy:
*19 less trivial qualities in full sentences with elaboration*"
Apparently the site is selling a book:
"NoMarriage.com - honest marriage and relationship advice for men.
"Order noMarriage.com book - only $9.95
- You will understand how and why American women (American woman = modern western woman from any country) always change for the worse after marriage.
- It will help you determine if your girlfriend will make a good wife.
- If you are already married, the e-book will help you decide if you should stay with your wife (the book purchase will appear on your CC statement as IIS).
- Much more to help you decide if you want to get married and have children in the near future."
http://www.nomarriage.com/"
Ho ho ho. Good stuff (assuming you intend to marry)!
There's lots of other interesting stuff on the site.
***
The NUS Political Association Special Projects Committee will be organizing a forum which intends to raise issues and questions with regards to the sustainability of opposition parties in Singapore.
There is no doubt that the one party dominance system has been persistent in Singapore since independence. While Singaporeans enjoy economic success and a comfortable standard of living owing to the efficient government running the country, will there be alternative voices that could be heard? Are Singaporeans willing to raise issues that contradict current government policies for the betterment of the society?
>From the last elections, only two candidates from the opposition parties managed to secure seats in the parliament. Could that be a worrying sign that there could be no future for opposition parties in Singapore? Could the merging of opposition parties to form a larger entity work out like in the case of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA)?
With the aggressive move by PAP to recruit the younger generation to pump up its parties' strength, will the opposition do likewise? What will be the opposition parties' move to keep check of the new government under the leadership of the new Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong?
With all these in mind, our guest speaker, Miss Sylvia Lim, current Chairman of the Workers' Party will first speak about these pertinent issues in her viewpoint which will then proceed on with a question and answer session between the NUS students and the guest speaker relating to these concerns.
Profile of Speaker
Miss Sylvia Lim holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree from the National University of Singapore and obtained a Master of Laws degree in 1989 from the University of London. She was called to the Bar in 1991.
In 1991 she joined the Singapore Police Force as a Police Inspector where she served for 3 years; she was active in investigation work (including supervision) at the Central Police Div HQ and thereafter was staff officer to the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department.
In 1994 she returned to practise law in the private sector, with M/s Lim & Lim. From 1994 to 1998, she was active in both civil and criminal litigation and handled a variety of cases in the High Court, Subordinate Courts and Juvenile Court.
She is currently a lecturer in Temasek Polytechnic and a manager at the Continuing Education & Training at the Polytechnic's Business School.
Her political life began when she was being co-opted in as a council member of the Workers' Party's Executive Council in May 2001. She has then risen to the post of Chairman during the Executive Council election in June 2003.
More about Sylvia Lim and the Workers' Party can be found at http://www.wp.org.sg
Details of Event
Title: "Towards A More Democratic Singapore – The future of opposition parties"
Date: 29th March 2005
Time: 6.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Venue: LT 18 (Located at NUS Business School)
Speaker: Miss Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (Chairman, Workers' Party)
Admission is Free.
To register for this event, please send an email to oppositionforum2005@yahoo.com
This event is strictly for NUS students only.
Please include your name, matriculation number, faculty/year of study, contact number(s) and email address, by 20th March 2005 (Sunday).
Hope to see you there!
Lai Hoe Keat
Special Projects Director
30th Management Committee
NUS Students' Political Association
***
Weird blog feedback:
Subject: Are elistist Rafflesians taking over Singapore?
Message: Eh white boy, how come your white school got condo in Bishan "Directly opposite Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College" want huh? They want to take over Bishan issit? Is it their new elitist hostel for the students? I want to buy need raffles membership or not?
http://www.singaporeexpats.com/singapore-property-pictures/condo/rafflesia.htm
"Rafflesia is a distinctive twin tower landmark located directly opposite the Raffles Institution. It is only 5 minutes walk to the Junction 8 Shopping Centre, Bishan MRT and the HDB neighbourhood retail shops and clinics.
It is also near the CTE and PIE, and is considered as the central part of district 20."
I recall that they were building it when I was still in RI. Guess they overshot the deadline. You'd have guessed it would be to reconsider the project name, but noooooooo...
***
Thread: are christian evolutionists closet supporters of ID?
A: Yes xxx, precisely, "what exactly do Christian Evolutionists profess?" (quote xxx) Like I mentioned before, I feel that there is no room in the Christian paradigm to fit Evolution in. Its either you subscribe to Intelligent design, or Evolution, not both. Some may say that Evolution may fit into Creationism if we don't take a literal reading of the Bible, this meaning that the 6 days that God created the Earth and all living creatures may have occured over a span of thousands or millions of years, and not the 24 hour-day we know of today. However, if this is so, then can we also say that Jesus did not rise after 3 days, but after hundreds or thousands of years? My point is that the Bible has to be taken literally at all times, thus Evolution must exist as a paradigm on its own and cannot stand with Christianity and Creationsm.
Me: But what about when the Bible contradicts facts of objective reality (eg the world being round or the earth being 4.5 billion years old) or itself?
"I’ve followed every part of the Bible! Even the parts that contradict the other parts!" - Ned Flanders
B: Which bible would like to take literal? A version in Aramaic that is thousands of years old or the greatly modified versions in today's English or maybe one from the 19th century in German...
loupgarou26 has plugged 'Christianity and its Discontents' in, all of places, the Sammyboy Forum (no, not the sex one. The conspiracy theory one where everything under the sun is blamed on the PAP).
Some of the less incoherent posts:
A: "<<Have you ever seen a monkey evolved into a man or woman???>>
No i have not despite the fact that chimps n u share 98% the same genetic DNA structure.
But i have seen lots of rational man evolved to bcome spiritual irrational idiots when the believed the most ridiculous n illogical fairy tale ...that a god can die for your sins which your ancestors is guilty off."
B: "LMAO! Wahahahah! Aiyah..you shouldnt reveal such secrets mah..else less fools on this planet, more competitive leh.
But I can bet he doesnt know what the hell you are talking about. Mostly, they will use the 'But you also cannot see the radio waves leh, how come you can listen to radios ah? argument.' So Don't worry."
C [to person lambasting Evolution]: "going by your logic...aliens exists cos nobody has seen an alien before."
D: "<<Peace of God is what Jesus is offering to all who are burdened needing rest.>>
Yet the slave race 'God' owns is the cause of my burdens. Sounds like COE + ERP right? One creates the market, the other controls the market."
Heh heh.
***
Dead: Man at foot of block
Dead: Wife, 2 kids in flat - March 8, 2005 - "He said he 'played shares' and owed a loan company a lot of money and that the interest was due, but he had no money to pay it.'"
Clear evidence, if any was needed, of the social ills that the stock market causes. We should therefore form an organisation to lobby for the closure of the Stock Exchange of Singapore. We call call it FASMT - Families Against the Stock Market Threat.
Forget university and get a trade, says PM - "John Howard has urged young people to consider quitting school in Year 10 to pursue careers in traditional trades in response to the nation's growing shortage of skilled workers... The Prime Minister said yesterday school leavers who learnt a trade often ended up much better off than if they had continued on with a university education."
29+ Evidences for Macroevolution - Prediction 5.3: Functional change - "Bacteria have also evolved the ability to synthesize new amino acids and DNA bases (Futuyma 1998, p. 274). Unicellular organisms have evolved the ability to use nylon and pentachlorophenol (which are both unnatural manmade chemicals) as their sole carbon sources (Okada et al. 1983; Orser and Lange 1994). The acquisition of this latter ability entailed the evolution of an entirely novel multienzyme metabolic pathway (Lee et al. 1998). Bacteria have evolved to grow at previously unviable temperatures (Bennett et al. 1992). In E. coli, we have seen the evolution (by artificial selection) of an entirely novel metabolic system including the ability to metabolize a new carbon source, the regulation of this ability by new regulatory genes, and the evolution of the ability to transport this new carbon source across the cell membrane (Hall 1982)."
The Rise of Illiberal Democracy - "Around the world, democratically elected regimes are routinely ignoring limits on their power and depriving citizens of basic freedoms. From Peru to the Philippines, we see the rise of a disturbing phenomenon: illiberal democracy. It has been difficult to recognize because for the last century in the West, democracy -- free and fair elections -- has gone hand in hand with constitutional liberalism -- the rule of law and basic human rights. But in the rest of the world, these two concepts are coming apart. Democracy without constitutional liberalism is producing centralized regimes, the erosion of liberty, ethnic competition, conflict, and war. The international community and the United States must end their obsession with balloting and promote the gradual liberalization of societies."
Reto Schneider :: Verrückte Experimente - "1928 The living dog’s head: In the photographs it looks like a circus side show. In the middle sits a bowl containing a severed dog’s head and two tubes leading to a stand holding a pump, a bottle, and a basin filled to the brim with blood. A group of onlookers clusters tightly round about, witnesses to a scientific miracle: the dog’s head lives."
ScienceDirect - Journal of Voice : Effect of Hydration and Vocal Rest on the Vocal Fatigue in Amateur Karaoke Singers - "Karaoke singing is a very popular entertainment among young people in Asia. It is a leisure singing activity with the singer's voice amplified with special acoustic effects in the backdrop of music. Music video and song captions are shown on television screen to remind the singers during singing. It is not uncommon to find participants singing continuously for four to five hours each time. As most of the karaoke singers have no formal training in singing, these amateur singers are more vulnerable to developing voice problems under these intensive singing activities. This study reports the performance of 20 young amateur singers (10 males and 10 females, aged between 20–25 years) on a series of phonatory function tasks carried out during continuous karaoke singing"
ThinkGeek :: Albert Einstein Action Figure - "Dressed for intense classroom action, this Albert Einstein Action Figure stands with a piece of chalk in his hand, poised to explain relativity or do battle with the forces of entropy. Fits in nicely with any office, cube or dorm decor and features realistic disheveled hair! Very few people on this planet have ever had the ability to go as far as Einstein has in comprehending the fundamental principles of the Universe. So we here at ThinkGeek think of that as sort of a super power worthy of the title 'Superhero Action Figure'. Sure he might not have been able to fly, breathe underwater or emit spider webs from his wrist - but he could melt your mind in a heartbeat with just a single attempt at explaining the Universe to you. Now that's power!"
***
Sheena complains that my posts are too cheem (and others that they are too long). Yet I get 400+ hits a day. There must be a helluva lotta masochists out there.
***
"There's two ways to end up with this result. Either you picked the silliest possible answer to each question, or you answered honestly, and happen to be hyperactive, manic, loon. Assuming you answered honestly, your profile is as follows: You are the 100-sided dice, also known as the legendary Zocchihedron. You are the bit of data that registers so far off the chart that the average person doesn't even know you exist. You are desperate for attention and will get it any way you can. Your jokes have the lowest laugh ratio, but you go for quantity, not quality. Once you get started on a pointless tangent, it takes a group effort to bring you back to reality and make you shut up. You are a distraction who is permanently distracted. You consider yourself silly and entertaining, but everyone else complains about how lame and annoying you are. The one secret they aren't telling you, is how they sometimes actually miss the noise when you're gone."
***
The Body: AIDS Survival Project: Survival News -- Cruising With Lazarus: The Fourth Annual 'Just Shut Up' Awards By David Salyer
"Every year, people all over the world say stridently stupid, misinformed or absurd things about HIV and AIDS. Here's a list of some folks who make you wonder what, if anything, they were thinking before they opened their mouths in 2004. Their comments are best met with three little words: Just shut up.
Balaji Sadasivan
The Southeast Asian country of Singapore is one of the world's most prosperous nations. Home to a little more than four million people, figures from the World Health Organization tell us that about 4,000 Singaporeans are living with HIV. Speaking publicly last November, Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan reported that HIV/AIDS cases were doubling every three to four years. Sadasivan blames gay men for the spread of HIV and claims nongovernmental agencies like Action for AIDS (AfA) are not doing enough to promote safer sexual practices. Naturally, he fails to acknowledge that gay sex is still illegal in many parts of Singapore (as are oral and anal sex) and that agencies like AfA are routinely prohibited from distributing brochures or condom packs that would lead to education and prevention. "We must recognize there are conservative people in Singapore and there's no need to say the only way to educate people is to try to do it in an in-your-face approach," Sadasivan protests. "To educate people, you don't have to be offensive," he rambled further until finally warning, "If we do not act, by 2010 we may have more than 15,000 HIV persons in Singapore." Does he have a plan, a strategy? Nope. His job would seem to be pointing fingers and declaring, "Sexual behavior is a private thing, it's something people don't want to talk about. It's not discussed in polite society.""
He's going to get sued, then the "AIDS Survival Project" will not be able to carry out its mission properly.
***
Got sent the following:
NoMarriage.com - Rachel's "Perfect Guy" Qualities List
"Rachel is a real girl. The list was taken from her website. Rachel is a typical young American woman. Keep in mind that she expects everything on the list simply because she has vagina.
*135 mostly trivial qualities, almost all described in 5 words or under*"
This is followed by:
"Here is a typical 28yo American woman's personals ad. Interestingly, the only things she says about herself is that she is lazy, bitchy, ugly, and does not like giving blowjobs.
This is my ideal guy:
*19 less trivial qualities in full sentences with elaboration*"
Apparently the site is selling a book:
"NoMarriage.com - honest marriage and relationship advice for men.
"Order noMarriage.com book - only $9.95
- You will understand how and why American women (American woman = modern western woman from any country) always change for the worse after marriage.
- It will help you determine if your girlfriend will make a good wife.
- If you are already married, the e-book will help you decide if you should stay with your wife (the book purchase will appear on your CC statement as IIS).
- Much more to help you decide if you want to get married and have children in the near future."
http://www.nomarriage.com/"
Ho ho ho. Good stuff (assuming you intend to marry)!
There's lots of other interesting stuff on the site.
***
The NUS Political Association Special Projects Committee will be organizing a forum which intends to raise issues and questions with regards to the sustainability of opposition parties in Singapore.
There is no doubt that the one party dominance system has been persistent in Singapore since independence. While Singaporeans enjoy economic success and a comfortable standard of living owing to the efficient government running the country, will there be alternative voices that could be heard? Are Singaporeans willing to raise issues that contradict current government policies for the betterment of the society?
>From the last elections, only two candidates from the opposition parties managed to secure seats in the parliament. Could that be a worrying sign that there could be no future for opposition parties in Singapore? Could the merging of opposition parties to form a larger entity work out like in the case of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA)?
With the aggressive move by PAP to recruit the younger generation to pump up its parties' strength, will the opposition do likewise? What will be the opposition parties' move to keep check of the new government under the leadership of the new Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong?
With all these in mind, our guest speaker, Miss Sylvia Lim, current Chairman of the Workers' Party will first speak about these pertinent issues in her viewpoint which will then proceed on with a question and answer session between the NUS students and the guest speaker relating to these concerns.
Profile of Speaker
Miss Sylvia Lim holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree from the National University of Singapore and obtained a Master of Laws degree in 1989 from the University of London. She was called to the Bar in 1991.
In 1991 she joined the Singapore Police Force as a Police Inspector where she served for 3 years; she was active in investigation work (including supervision) at the Central Police Div HQ and thereafter was staff officer to the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department.
In 1994 she returned to practise law in the private sector, with M/s Lim & Lim. From 1994 to 1998, she was active in both civil and criminal litigation and handled a variety of cases in the High Court, Subordinate Courts and Juvenile Court.
She is currently a lecturer in Temasek Polytechnic and a manager at the Continuing Education & Training at the Polytechnic's Business School.
Her political life began when she was being co-opted in as a council member of the Workers' Party's Executive Council in May 2001. She has then risen to the post of Chairman during the Executive Council election in June 2003.
More about Sylvia Lim and the Workers' Party can be found at http://www.wp.org.sg
Details of Event
Title: "Towards A More Democratic Singapore – The future of opposition parties"
Date: 29th March 2005
Time: 6.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Venue: LT 18 (Located at NUS Business School)
Speaker: Miss Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (Chairman, Workers' Party)
Admission is Free.
To register for this event, please send an email to oppositionforum2005@yahoo.com
This event is strictly for NUS students only.
Please include your name, matriculation number, faculty/year of study, contact number(s) and email address, by 20th March 2005 (Sunday).
Hope to see you there!
Lai Hoe Keat
Special Projects Director
30th Management Committee
NUS Students' Political Association
***
Weird blog feedback:
Subject: Are elistist Rafflesians taking over Singapore?
Message: Eh white boy, how come your white school got condo in Bishan "Directly opposite Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College" want huh? They want to take over Bishan issit? Is it their new elitist hostel for the students? I want to buy need raffles membership or not?
http://www.singaporeexpats.com/singapore-property-pictures/condo/rafflesia.htm
"Rafflesia is a distinctive twin tower landmark located directly opposite the Raffles Institution. It is only 5 minutes walk to the Junction 8 Shopping Centre, Bishan MRT and the HDB neighbourhood retail shops and clinics.
It is also near the CTE and PIE, and is considered as the central part of district 20."
I recall that they were building it when I was still in RI. Guess they overshot the deadline. You'd have guessed it would be to reconsider the project name, but noooooooo...
***
Thread: are christian evolutionists closet supporters of ID?
A: Yes xxx, precisely, "what exactly do Christian Evolutionists profess?" (quote xxx) Like I mentioned before, I feel that there is no room in the Christian paradigm to fit Evolution in. Its either you subscribe to Intelligent design, or Evolution, not both. Some may say that Evolution may fit into Creationism if we don't take a literal reading of the Bible, this meaning that the 6 days that God created the Earth and all living creatures may have occured over a span of thousands or millions of years, and not the 24 hour-day we know of today. However, if this is so, then can we also say that Jesus did not rise after 3 days, but after hundreds or thousands of years? My point is that the Bible has to be taken literally at all times, thus Evolution must exist as a paradigm on its own and cannot stand with Christianity and Creationsm.
Me: But what about when the Bible contradicts facts of objective reality (eg the world being round or the earth being 4.5 billion years old) or itself?
"I’ve followed every part of the Bible! Even the parts that contradict the other parts!" - Ned Flanders
B: Which bible would like to take literal? A version in Aramaic that is thousands of years old or the greatly modified versions in today's English or maybe one from the 19th century in German...
loupgarou26 has plugged 'Christianity and its Discontents' in, all of places, the Sammyboy Forum (no, not the sex one. The conspiracy theory one where everything under the sun is blamed on the PAP).
Some of the less incoherent posts:
A: "<<Have you ever seen a monkey evolved into a man or woman???>>
No i have not despite the fact that chimps n u share 98% the same genetic DNA structure.
But i have seen lots of rational man evolved to bcome spiritual irrational idiots when the believed the most ridiculous n illogical fairy tale ...that a god can die for your sins which your ancestors is guilty off."
B: "LMAO! Wahahahah! Aiyah..you shouldnt reveal such secrets mah..else less fools on this planet, more competitive leh.
But I can bet he doesnt know what the hell you are talking about. Mostly, they will use the 'But you also cannot see the radio waves leh, how come you can listen to radios ah? argument.' So Don't worry."
C [to person lambasting Evolution]: "going by your logic...aliens exists cos nobody has seen an alien before."
D: "<<Peace of God is what Jesus is offering to all who are burdened needing rest.>>
Yet the slave race 'God' owns is the cause of my burdens. Sounds like COE + ERP right? One creates the market, the other controls the market."
Heh heh.
***
Dead: Man at foot of block
Dead: Wife, 2 kids in flat - March 8, 2005 - "He said he 'played shares' and owed a loan company a lot of money and that the interest was due, but he had no money to pay it.'"
Clear evidence, if any was needed, of the social ills that the stock market causes. We should therefore form an organisation to lobby for the closure of the Stock Exchange of Singapore. We call call it FASMT - Families Against the Stock Market Threat.
Forget university and get a trade, says PM - "John Howard has urged young people to consider quitting school in Year 10 to pursue careers in traditional trades in response to the nation's growing shortage of skilled workers... The Prime Minister said yesterday school leavers who learnt a trade often ended up much better off than if they had continued on with a university education."
29+ Evidences for Macroevolution - Prediction 5.3: Functional change - "Bacteria have also evolved the ability to synthesize new amino acids and DNA bases (Futuyma 1998, p. 274). Unicellular organisms have evolved the ability to use nylon and pentachlorophenol (which are both unnatural manmade chemicals) as their sole carbon sources (Okada et al. 1983; Orser and Lange 1994). The acquisition of this latter ability entailed the evolution of an entirely novel multienzyme metabolic pathway (Lee et al. 1998). Bacteria have evolved to grow at previously unviable temperatures (Bennett et al. 1992). In E. coli, we have seen the evolution (by artificial selection) of an entirely novel metabolic system including the ability to metabolize a new carbon source, the regulation of this ability by new regulatory genes, and the evolution of the ability to transport this new carbon source across the cell membrane (Hall 1982)."
The Rise of Illiberal Democracy - "Around the world, democratically elected regimes are routinely ignoring limits on their power and depriving citizens of basic freedoms. From Peru to the Philippines, we see the rise of a disturbing phenomenon: illiberal democracy. It has been difficult to recognize because for the last century in the West, democracy -- free and fair elections -- has gone hand in hand with constitutional liberalism -- the rule of law and basic human rights. But in the rest of the world, these two concepts are coming apart. Democracy without constitutional liberalism is producing centralized regimes, the erosion of liberty, ethnic competition, conflict, and war. The international community and the United States must end their obsession with balloting and promote the gradual liberalization of societies."
Reto Schneider :: Verrückte Experimente - "1928 The living dog’s head: In the photographs it looks like a circus side show. In the middle sits a bowl containing a severed dog’s head and two tubes leading to a stand holding a pump, a bottle, and a basin filled to the brim with blood. A group of onlookers clusters tightly round about, witnesses to a scientific miracle: the dog’s head lives."
ScienceDirect - Journal of Voice : Effect of Hydration and Vocal Rest on the Vocal Fatigue in Amateur Karaoke Singers - "Karaoke singing is a very popular entertainment among young people in Asia. It is a leisure singing activity with the singer's voice amplified with special acoustic effects in the backdrop of music. Music video and song captions are shown on television screen to remind the singers during singing. It is not uncommon to find participants singing continuously for four to five hours each time. As most of the karaoke singers have no formal training in singing, these amateur singers are more vulnerable to developing voice problems under these intensive singing activities. This study reports the performance of 20 young amateur singers (10 males and 10 females, aged between 20–25 years) on a series of phonatory function tasks carried out during continuous karaoke singing"
ThinkGeek :: Albert Einstein Action Figure - "Dressed for intense classroom action, this Albert Einstein Action Figure stands with a piece of chalk in his hand, poised to explain relativity or do battle with the forces of entropy. Fits in nicely with any office, cube or dorm decor and features realistic disheveled hair! Very few people on this planet have ever had the ability to go as far as Einstein has in comprehending the fundamental principles of the Universe. So we here at ThinkGeek think of that as sort of a super power worthy of the title 'Superhero Action Figure'. Sure he might not have been able to fly, breathe underwater or emit spider webs from his wrist - but he could melt your mind in a heartbeat with just a single attempt at explaining the Universe to you. Now that's power!"
Post ID: 111029041787358480
The Soul of the Mark III Beast
(Excerpt from The Soul of Anna Klane, Terrel Miedaner, 1977)
“Anatol’s attitude is straightforward enough,” Hunt said. “He considers biological life as a complex form of machinery.”
She shrugged, but not indifferently. “I admit being fascinated by the man, but I can’t accept that philosophy.”
“Think about it,” Hunt suggested. “You know that according to neoevolution theory, animal bodies are formed by a completely mechanistic process. Each cell is a microscopic machine, a tiny component part integrated into a larger, more complex device.”
Dirksen shook her head. “But animal and human bodies are more than machines. The reproductive act itself makes them different.”
“Why,” Hunt asked, “is it so wonderful that a biological machine should beget another biological machine? It requires no more creative thought for a female mammal to conceive and give birth than for an automatic mill to spew forth engine blocks.”
Dirksen’s eyes flashed, “Do you think the automatic mill feels anything when it gives birth?” she challenged.
“Its metal is severely stressed, and eventually the mill wears out.”
“I don’t think that’s what I mean by ‘feeling.’”
“Nor I,” Hunt agreed. “But it isn’t always easy to know who or what has feelings. On the farm where I was raised, we had a brood sow with an unfortunate tendency to crush most of her offspring to death — accidentally, I imagine. Then she ate her children’s corpses. Would you say she had maternal feelings?”
“I’m not talking about pigs!”
“We could talk about humans in the same breath. Would you care to estimate how many newborn babies drown in toilets?”
Dirksen was too appalled to speak.
After some silence Hunt continued, “What you see in Klane as preoccupation with machinery is just a different perspective. Machines are another life form to him, a form he himself can create from plastic and metal. And he is honest enough to regard himself as a machine.”
“A machine begetting machines,” Dirksen quipped. “Next thing, you’ll be calling him a mother!”
“No,” Hunt said. “He’s an engineer. And however crude an engineered machine is in comparison with the human body, it represents a higher act than simple biological reproduction, for it is at least the result of a thought process.”
“I ought to know better than to argue with a lawyer,” she conceded, still upset. “But I just do not relate to machines! Emotionally speaking, there is a difference between the way we treat animals and the way we treat machines that defies logical explanation. I mean, I can break a machine and it really doesn’t bother me, but I cannot kill an animal.”
“Have you ever tried?”
“Sort of,” Dirkseri recalled. “The apartment I shared at college was infested with mice, so I set a trap. But when I finally caught one, I couldn’t empty the trap — the poor dead thing looked so hurt and harmless. So I buried it in the backyard, trap and all, and decided that living with mice was far more pleasant than killing them.”
“Yet you do eat meat,” Hunt pointed out. “So your aversion isn’t so much to killing per se as it is to doing it yourself.”
“Look,” she said, irritated. “That argument misses a point about basic respect for life. We have something in common with animals. You do see that, don’t you?”
“Klane has a theory that you might find interesting,” Hunt persisted. “He would say that real or imagined biological kinship has nothing to do with your ‘respect for life,’ In actual fact, you don’t like to kill simply because the animal resists death. It cries, struggles, or looks sad — it pleads with you not to destroy it. And it is your mind, by the way, not your biological body, that hears an animal’s plea.”
She looked at him, unconvinced.
Hunt laid some money on the table, pushed back his chair. “Come with me.”
A half hour later Dirksen found herself entering Klane’s house in the company of his attorney, for whose car the entrance gate had automatically moved aside, and at whose touch the keyless front door had servoed immediately open.
She followed him to the basement laboratory, where Hunt opened one of several dozen cabinets and brought out something that looked like a large aluminum beetle with small, colored indicator lamps and a few mechanical protrusions about its smooth surface. He turned it over, showing Dirksen three rubber wheels on its underside. Stenciled on the flat metal base plate were the words MARK III BEAST.
Hunt set the device on the tiled floor, simultaneously toggling a tiny switch on its underbelly. With a quiet humming sound the toy began to move in a searching pattern back and forth across the floor. It stopped momentarily, then headed for an electrical outlet near the base of one large chassis. It paused before the socket, extended a pair of prongs from an opening in its metallic body, probed and entered the energy source. Some of the lights on its body began to glow green, and a noise almost like the purring of a cat emanated from within,
Dirksen regarded the contrivance with interest. “A mechanical animal. It’s cute — but what’s the point of it?”
Hunt reached over to a nearby bench for a hammer and held it out to her. “I’d like you to kill it.”
“What are you talking about?” Dirksen said in mild alarm. “Why should I kill. . . break that. . . that machine?” She backed away, refusing to take the weapon.
“Just as an experiment,” Hunt replied. “I tried it myself some years ago at Klane’s behest and found it instructive.”
“What did you learn?”
“Something about the meaning of life and death.”
Dirksen stood looking at Hunt suspiciously.
“The ‘beast’ has no defenses that can hurt you,” he assured her. “Just don’t crash into anything while you’re chasing it.” He held out the hammer.
She stepped tentatively forward, took the weapon, looked sidelong at the peculiar machine purring deeply as it sucked away at the electrical current. She walked toward it, stooped down and raised the hammer. “But . . . it’s eating,” she said, turning to Hunt.
He laughed. Angrily she took the hammer in both hands, raised it, and brought it down hard.
But with a shrill noise like a cry of fright the beast had pulled its mandibles from the socket and moved suddenly backwards, The hammer cracked solidly into the floor, on a section of tile that had been obscured from view by the body of the machine. The tile was pockmarked with indentations.
Dirksen looked up. Hunt was laughing. The machine had moved two meters away and stopped, eyeing her. No, she decided, it was not eyeing her. Irritated with herself, Dirksen grasped her weapon and stalked cautiously forward. The machine backed away, a pair of red lights on the front of it glowing alternately brighter and dimmer at the approximate alphawave frequency of the human brain. Dirksen lunged, swung the hammer, and missed —
Ten minutes later she returned, flushed and gasping, to Hunt. Her body hurt in several places where she had bruised it on jutting machinery, and her head ached where she had cracked it under a workbench. “It’s like trying to catch a big rat! When do its stupid batteries run down anyway?”
Hunt checked his watch. “I’d guess it. has another half hour, provided you keep it busy.” He pointed beneath a workbench, where the beast had found another electrical outlet. “But there is an easier way to get it.”
“I’ll take it.”
“Put the hammer down and pick it up.”
“Just . . . pick it up?”
“Yes. It only recognizes danger from its own kind — in this case the steel hammer head. It’s programmed to trust unarmed protoplasm.”
She laid the hammer on a bench, walked slowly over to the machine. It didn’t move. The purring had stopped; pale amber lights glowed softly. Dirksen reached down and touched it tentatively, felt a gentle vibration. She gingerly picked it up with both hands. Its lights changed to a clear green color, and through the comfortable warmth of its metal skin she could feel the smooth purr of motors.
“So now what do I do with the stupid thing?” she asked irritably,
‘Oh, lay him on his back on the workbench. He’ll be quite helpless, in that position, and you can bash him at your leisure.”
“I can do without the anthropomorphisms,” Dirksen muttered as she followed Hunt’s suggestion, determined to see this thing through.
As she inverted the machine and set it down, its lights changed back to red. Wheels spun briefly, stopped. Dirksen picked up the hammer again, quickly raised it and brought it down in a smooth arc which struck the helpless machine off-center, damaging one of its wheels and flipping it right side up again. There was a metallic scraping sound from the damaged wheel, and the beast began spinning in a fitful circle, A snapping sound came from its underbelly; the machine stopped, lights glowing dolefully.
Dirksen pressed her lips together tightly, raised the hammer for a final blow, But as she started to bring it down there came from within the beast a sound, a soft crying wail that rose and fell like a baby whimpering. Dirksen dropped the hammer and stepped back, her eyes on the blood-red pool of lubricating fluid forming on the table beneath the creature. She looked at Hunt, horrified. “It’s . . . it’s—”
“Just a machine,” Hunt said, seriously now. “Like these, its evolutionary predecessors.” His gesturing hands took in the array of machinery in the workshop around them, mute and menacing watchers. “But unlike them it can sense its own doom and cry out for succor.”
“Turn it off,” she said flatly.
Hunt walked to the table, tried to move its tiny power switch. “You’ve jammed it, I’m afraid.” He picked up the hammer from the floor where it had fallen, “Care to administer the death blow?”
She stepped back, shaking her head as Hunt raised the hammer. “Couldn’t you fix—” There was a brief metallic crunch. She winced, turned her head. The wailing had stopped, and they returned upstairs in silence.
(Excerpt from The Soul of Anna Klane, Terrel Miedaner, 1977)
“Anatol’s attitude is straightforward enough,” Hunt said. “He considers biological life as a complex form of machinery.”
She shrugged, but not indifferently. “I admit being fascinated by the man, but I can’t accept that philosophy.”
“Think about it,” Hunt suggested. “You know that according to neoevolution theory, animal bodies are formed by a completely mechanistic process. Each cell is a microscopic machine, a tiny component part integrated into a larger, more complex device.”
Dirksen shook her head. “But animal and human bodies are more than machines. The reproductive act itself makes them different.”
“Why,” Hunt asked, “is it so wonderful that a biological machine should beget another biological machine? It requires no more creative thought for a female mammal to conceive and give birth than for an automatic mill to spew forth engine blocks.”
Dirksen’s eyes flashed, “Do you think the automatic mill feels anything when it gives birth?” she challenged.
“Its metal is severely stressed, and eventually the mill wears out.”
“I don’t think that’s what I mean by ‘feeling.’”
“Nor I,” Hunt agreed. “But it isn’t always easy to know who or what has feelings. On the farm where I was raised, we had a brood sow with an unfortunate tendency to crush most of her offspring to death — accidentally, I imagine. Then she ate her children’s corpses. Would you say she had maternal feelings?”
“I’m not talking about pigs!”
“We could talk about humans in the same breath. Would you care to estimate how many newborn babies drown in toilets?”
Dirksen was too appalled to speak.
After some silence Hunt continued, “What you see in Klane as preoccupation with machinery is just a different perspective. Machines are another life form to him, a form he himself can create from plastic and metal. And he is honest enough to regard himself as a machine.”
“A machine begetting machines,” Dirksen quipped. “Next thing, you’ll be calling him a mother!”
“No,” Hunt said. “He’s an engineer. And however crude an engineered machine is in comparison with the human body, it represents a higher act than simple biological reproduction, for it is at least the result of a thought process.”
“I ought to know better than to argue with a lawyer,” she conceded, still upset. “But I just do not relate to machines! Emotionally speaking, there is a difference between the way we treat animals and the way we treat machines that defies logical explanation. I mean, I can break a machine and it really doesn’t bother me, but I cannot kill an animal.”
“Have you ever tried?”
“Sort of,” Dirkseri recalled. “The apartment I shared at college was infested with mice, so I set a trap. But when I finally caught one, I couldn’t empty the trap — the poor dead thing looked so hurt and harmless. So I buried it in the backyard, trap and all, and decided that living with mice was far more pleasant than killing them.”
“Yet you do eat meat,” Hunt pointed out. “So your aversion isn’t so much to killing per se as it is to doing it yourself.”
“Look,” she said, irritated. “That argument misses a point about basic respect for life. We have something in common with animals. You do see that, don’t you?”
“Klane has a theory that you might find interesting,” Hunt persisted. “He would say that real or imagined biological kinship has nothing to do with your ‘respect for life,’ In actual fact, you don’t like to kill simply because the animal resists death. It cries, struggles, or looks sad — it pleads with you not to destroy it. And it is your mind, by the way, not your biological body, that hears an animal’s plea.”
She looked at him, unconvinced.
Hunt laid some money on the table, pushed back his chair. “Come with me.”
A half hour later Dirksen found herself entering Klane’s house in the company of his attorney, for whose car the entrance gate had automatically moved aside, and at whose touch the keyless front door had servoed immediately open.
She followed him to the basement laboratory, where Hunt opened one of several dozen cabinets and brought out something that looked like a large aluminum beetle with small, colored indicator lamps and a few mechanical protrusions about its smooth surface. He turned it over, showing Dirksen three rubber wheels on its underside. Stenciled on the flat metal base plate were the words MARK III BEAST.
Hunt set the device on the tiled floor, simultaneously toggling a tiny switch on its underbelly. With a quiet humming sound the toy began to move in a searching pattern back and forth across the floor. It stopped momentarily, then headed for an electrical outlet near the base of one large chassis. It paused before the socket, extended a pair of prongs from an opening in its metallic body, probed and entered the energy source. Some of the lights on its body began to glow green, and a noise almost like the purring of a cat emanated from within,
Dirksen regarded the contrivance with interest. “A mechanical animal. It’s cute — but what’s the point of it?”
Hunt reached over to a nearby bench for a hammer and held it out to her. “I’d like you to kill it.”
“What are you talking about?” Dirksen said in mild alarm. “Why should I kill. . . break that. . . that machine?” She backed away, refusing to take the weapon.
“Just as an experiment,” Hunt replied. “I tried it myself some years ago at Klane’s behest and found it instructive.”
“What did you learn?”
“Something about the meaning of life and death.”
Dirksen stood looking at Hunt suspiciously.
“The ‘beast’ has no defenses that can hurt you,” he assured her. “Just don’t crash into anything while you’re chasing it.” He held out the hammer.
She stepped tentatively forward, took the weapon, looked sidelong at the peculiar machine purring deeply as it sucked away at the electrical current. She walked toward it, stooped down and raised the hammer. “But . . . it’s eating,” she said, turning to Hunt.
He laughed. Angrily she took the hammer in both hands, raised it, and brought it down hard.
But with a shrill noise like a cry of fright the beast had pulled its mandibles from the socket and moved suddenly backwards, The hammer cracked solidly into the floor, on a section of tile that had been obscured from view by the body of the machine. The tile was pockmarked with indentations.
Dirksen looked up. Hunt was laughing. The machine had moved two meters away and stopped, eyeing her. No, she decided, it was not eyeing her. Irritated with herself, Dirksen grasped her weapon and stalked cautiously forward. The machine backed away, a pair of red lights on the front of it glowing alternately brighter and dimmer at the approximate alphawave frequency of the human brain. Dirksen lunged, swung the hammer, and missed —
Ten minutes later she returned, flushed and gasping, to Hunt. Her body hurt in several places where she had bruised it on jutting machinery, and her head ached where she had cracked it under a workbench. “It’s like trying to catch a big rat! When do its stupid batteries run down anyway?”
Hunt checked his watch. “I’d guess it. has another half hour, provided you keep it busy.” He pointed beneath a workbench, where the beast had found another electrical outlet. “But there is an easier way to get it.”
“I’ll take it.”
“Put the hammer down and pick it up.”
“Just . . . pick it up?”
“Yes. It only recognizes danger from its own kind — in this case the steel hammer head. It’s programmed to trust unarmed protoplasm.”
She laid the hammer on a bench, walked slowly over to the machine. It didn’t move. The purring had stopped; pale amber lights glowed softly. Dirksen reached down and touched it tentatively, felt a gentle vibration. She gingerly picked it up with both hands. Its lights changed to a clear green color, and through the comfortable warmth of its metal skin she could feel the smooth purr of motors.
“So now what do I do with the stupid thing?” she asked irritably,
‘Oh, lay him on his back on the workbench. He’ll be quite helpless, in that position, and you can bash him at your leisure.”
“I can do without the anthropomorphisms,” Dirksen muttered as she followed Hunt’s suggestion, determined to see this thing through.
As she inverted the machine and set it down, its lights changed back to red. Wheels spun briefly, stopped. Dirksen picked up the hammer again, quickly raised it and brought it down in a smooth arc which struck the helpless machine off-center, damaging one of its wheels and flipping it right side up again. There was a metallic scraping sound from the damaged wheel, and the beast began spinning in a fitful circle, A snapping sound came from its underbelly; the machine stopped, lights glowing dolefully.
Dirksen pressed her lips together tightly, raised the hammer for a final blow, But as she started to bring it down there came from within the beast a sound, a soft crying wail that rose and fell like a baby whimpering. Dirksen dropped the hammer and stepped back, her eyes on the blood-red pool of lubricating fluid forming on the table beneath the creature. She looked at Hunt, horrified. “It’s . . . it’s—”
“Just a machine,” Hunt said, seriously now. “Like these, its evolutionary predecessors.” His gesturing hands took in the array of machinery in the workshop around them, mute and menacing watchers. “But unlike them it can sense its own doom and cry out for succor.”
“Turn it off,” she said flatly.
Hunt walked to the table, tried to move its tiny power switch. “You’ve jammed it, I’m afraid.” He picked up the hammer from the floor where it had fallen, “Care to administer the death blow?”
She stepped back, shaking her head as Hunt raised the hammer. “Couldn’t you fix—” There was a brief metallic crunch. She winced, turned her head. The wailing had stopped, and they returned upstairs in silence.
Post ID: 111047511920433135
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Saw the following floating around:
--------------
Hey Everyone!
I just thought I would pass the word along about a great opportunity for everybody who wishes to take part. As announced on many fan lists, I'm heading up a major birthday project for Amy Jo Johnson (Original Pink Ranger). You guys are more than welcome to send me anything you would like to give to Amy.
There will be 3 main components to the present going to Amy. The first is a fan video that will be produced by a friend of mine. The formats we are currently able to accept are as follows: VHS, CD (mpeg or avi), miniDV, High8, or email. Please do not send wmv they are horrible quality and will not look good in the overall video.. also, we suggest you do not send VHS, but if you must you can. Unfortunately, we can't accept greetings via DVD. You cannot copy video from a DVD and we would really rather not deal with it. If you have any questions regarding the video greetings, please contact Amy Cartas. schmacky_kicks_ass@hotmail.com I am not at all technical, so she is the one taking care of it.
The second component being put together is a fan scrap book that another friend of mine will be putting together. Anything we receive toward that, will be used, so feel free to contribute anything and everything that your heart may desire. These contributions may include anything ranging from pictures or Amy Jo, pictures of you and Amy Jo if you've met her, poems, artwork creations, quotes, scrapbook pages that you have created for other reasons, etc. Be as creative as you would like.
The third component, for Amy Jo, is one that I consider to be the biggest, and will personally be heading up. As a friend and long time fan of Amy's, many other fans all over the world have been begging me to get them something from her, or pass a message and/or gift along. In an effort accomodate everyone, I will be accepting fan gifts. You can send me any presents you wish to give to Amy, or if you can't think of anything, you are always more than welcome to send cash, money orders, checks, gift certificates, etc. I will be purchasing a large gift from all of us with any money received, and I will let you all know what that is, as well as take suggestions as to what you might like the gift(s) to be.
All birthday contributions for Amy Jo can be sent to me at the following address.
Kimberly Tyler
C/O Morey Holzman
P.O. Box 300326
Escondido, CA 92030
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to let me know. I can be reached 24/7 at PrincessKimberly@Juno.com
Due to time restraint, there is a deadline for ALL contributions.
THE DEADLINE IS JULY 4TH!!!
You MUST have ALL the contributions to me by that date as we need time to get everything together before October. If you need an extension of any kind, you are more than welcome to request one, but depending on the contribution I may not be able to grant it, so please, send everything early. I hope you all will contribute anything you would like, and we will be getting it to Amy Jo on her birthday. Thanks!
Kimberly
--------------
Hey Everyone!
I just thought I would pass the word along about a great opportunity for everybody who wishes to take part. As announced on many fan lists, I'm heading up a major birthday project for Amy Jo Johnson (Original Pink Ranger). You guys are more than welcome to send me anything you would like to give to Amy.
There will be 3 main components to the present going to Amy. The first is a fan video that will be produced by a friend of mine. The formats we are currently able to accept are as follows: VHS, CD (mpeg or avi), miniDV, High8, or email. Please do not send wmv they are horrible quality and will not look good in the overall video.. also, we suggest you do not send VHS, but if you must you can. Unfortunately, we can't accept greetings via DVD. You cannot copy video from a DVD and we would really rather not deal with it. If you have any questions regarding the video greetings, please contact Amy Cartas. schmacky_kicks_ass@hotmail.com I am not at all technical, so she is the one taking care of it.
The second component being put together is a fan scrap book that another friend of mine will be putting together. Anything we receive toward that, will be used, so feel free to contribute anything and everything that your heart may desire. These contributions may include anything ranging from pictures or Amy Jo, pictures of you and Amy Jo if you've met her, poems, artwork creations, quotes, scrapbook pages that you have created for other reasons, etc. Be as creative as you would like.
The third component, for Amy Jo, is one that I consider to be the biggest, and will personally be heading up. As a friend and long time fan of Amy's, many other fans all over the world have been begging me to get them something from her, or pass a message and/or gift along. In an effort accomodate everyone, I will be accepting fan gifts. You can send me any presents you wish to give to Amy, or if you can't think of anything, you are always more than welcome to send cash, money orders, checks, gift certificates, etc. I will be purchasing a large gift from all of us with any money received, and I will let you all know what that is, as well as take suggestions as to what you might like the gift(s) to be.
All birthday contributions for Amy Jo can be sent to me at the following address.
Kimberly Tyler
C/O Morey Holzman
P.O. Box 300326
Escondido, CA 92030
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to let me know. I can be reached 24/7 at PrincessKimberly@Juno.com
Due to time restraint, there is a deadline for ALL contributions.
THE DEADLINE IS JULY 4TH!!!
You MUST have ALL the contributions to me by that date as we need time to get everything together before October. If you need an extension of any kind, you are more than welcome to request one, but depending on the contribution I may not be able to grant it, so please, send everything early. I hope you all will contribute anything you would like, and we will be getting it to Amy Jo on her birthday. Thanks!
Kimberly
Post ID: 111013301008463483
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." - Umberto Eco
Random Trivia bit: When the one and only referendum in Singapore's history was held in 1962, over the merger with Malaysia, there were 3 choices on the ballot: yes, yes and yes.
Of course this is not something you'll learn in Propaganda class.
"This first and only National Referendum held in Singapore to date was to decide on the island's position within the Federation of Malaysia after merging with the Peninsular. Main political parties campaigned for different alternatives. PAP stood for Alternative A - a full merger of Singapore, Peninsular Malaya and the Borneo states, with Singapore retaining powers over certain areas. SPA represented Alternative C, with Singapore's status no different from other states." (National Referendum 1962)
***
!!!
(No, not the guy on the left with the suspicious soup with eyeballs and kidneys floating in it and the bad perm. The tubs on the right!)
!!!
***
StudioTraffic.com
Vincent introduced this site to me like so:
"u interested in making $ from home ma
juz need to surf the net to make $.."
Of course I was deeply skeptical, despite his claiming that his friend had already gotten a payout (due to his pumping in $100 from the start).
I was not entirely sure how it worked, but guessed it was something like this:
By viewing 200 sites a day (there's a script which automates the moving from site to site, so in theory you can leave it on for a few hours and come back later), you get awarded 1% of your "account level" (which starts off at $10 when you sign up, so at first you only earn $0.10 a day).
When you accumulate a minimum of $5, you can withdraw the money (speaking of which, Google AdSense's cheque is supposed to be coming along soon, but something seems to have choked at their side). However, you can also reinvest it to raise your account level (or pump in money yourself to raise your account level, which also has the benefit of needing you to view only 100 sites a day instead of 200). At the maximum account level of $15,000 (which can be reached solely by reinvestment, without pumping any of your own money in at all, you can be earning $4,650 a month within 2 years and 8 months of signing up.
Considering that the vast majority of sites served seem to be of a similar nature (ie Make money by surfing the web), I'm inclined to think that this is just a giant Multi-Level Marketing scheme of sorts (though there are only two levels here). After all, there is no free lunch in this world (unless, it might be said by some, you are a PRC scholar who comes to Singapore on a scholarship and then breaks his bond and disappears).
Looking at their FAQ, I found a few catches:
"When you signed up with us, we credited your account with a $10 bonus to show our appreciation. This is our welcome gift to you, which is good for an entire year. All membership upgrades will last one year from the time they are applied to the account."
In other words, you need to pump in money on a yearly basis.
"When can I get cash? - You can make cash withdrawals as long as your account level is above $100."
You don't actually see any money until a year has passed (assuming you surf the requisite number of sites everyday and reinvest all your profits). Inevitably, people are going to pump in at least $90 from the start.
However, the most damning piece of evidence against the site is that the day after I first visited the site, Norton AntiVirus detected a virus in one of my temporary directories. I found some Russian exes inside and my suspicions were aroused.
I summoned Task Manager and found many funny processes running ("mah.exe", "MediaPass", "sixtypopsix", "eliteigm32", "istsvc.exe" and the like, some of which refused to shut down [or shut down and immediately sprung back up]). And when I tried to run msconfig, it got shut down. Furthermore, there was an invisible IExplore window opened, which presumably would prevent the IE BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) from being fully removed. So it took a few attempts to deworm my (newly formatted) system, including 1 or 2 boots in Safe Mode (and I think some registry keys remain still, unremovable for some reason).
How all this rubbish got past Firefox is anyone's guess. Maybe it has something to do with the alert windows the site popped up ('Press ok to continue'). Or, more likely, the fact that since formatting my laptop I hadn't installed the 21 pending Windows Security Updates!
Vincent says he hasn't been hit by spyware. I've told him to report on his progress after a year.
***
Guest article:
NOTES FROM A SURVIVOR:
THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL OF CASH HARVEST CULT
Not so long ago, I was a member of one of the largest churches in Singapore, it appeared big, trendy, relaxing and a good place to socialize. Besides, it taught a Gospel that was all about self-improvement and prosperity, what’s not to like. I mean the Pastor has a wife who is a recording artiste, lives in a condo and drives a BMW 7-Series, what’s not to like? Hey, even if I didn’t like Christianity all that much, anywhere that taught me how good it was to be rich can’t be all bad.
Until I heard their explanations.
City Harvest Church, aka Cash Harvest Cult, preaches a Gospel of Prosperity that probably explains the fact that many of my cell group members did not live in tremendous wealth. The thing is that if you have a brain for economic theory and basic common sense, you would not for a minute believe this Gospel of Prosperity.
This Gospel of Prosperity basically uses Biblical figures to argue that many Biblical figures were in fact, the most prosperous of their time, and that the Bible is in fact the most pro-prosperity tome of its day.
For example, would you believe that ADAM was rich? Yes, Adam was rich. That sounds believable if you ask me. I mean, the concept of rich and poor is built on ownership, isn’t it, if you follow Marx? The owners and the owned, between the producers and those who own the means of production, isn’t it? If I was the only man on the planet, I would be the owner of everything, and therefore I would be the richest person on the Planet. And since there was no woman, there would be no pre-nuptials to sign, and I would not have to divide my property with anyone else. Therefore clearly if I was Adam, I would be rich, heck even if I didn’t have clothes to wear and walked around buck naked in the Garden of Eden all day. In fact, I would be so rich that I did not even know what poverty was, because there was no other man on earth that could be considered less “wealthy” than me. Cash Harvest Cult proves how rich Adam was, by saying that he owned GOLD.
Genesis 2:10-12 (New International Version)
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [a] and onyx are also there.)
And of course, the gold of that land is GOOD, since the Bible tells us so. But what is it good for? If there was only one man on Earth, he could not sustain himself on the Gold for food, neither could he want to waste his time mining, panning and beating the gold into ornaments for himself, even if he found it attractive. Besides, what could he exchange the gold for? There was no one else on the Planet, so there was no one to trade with. Didn’t gold gain its use as a medium of exchange only when more prople were around? My brain was on the verge of exploding from the all the facts that flew in the face of economic theory and good common sense.
No wonder all my friends weren’t too wealthy, and those that were wealthy, had parents that were not Christian. How could anyone that believed in this be rich?
Take it from me, why tithe to an institution that cannot even guide you on the basics of economic theory?
Seen and heard:
"A relationship like a shepard with his sheep...give me a break. You don't have "relationships" with sheep. You have lunch or your have business opportunities."
***
Seems there's a new M$N Virus spreading, I got the following messages from someone:
"hot pic!!
http://www.mxt-networkz.com/parishilton.pif"
Meanwhile other people have been sending me PIFs, and I accidentally opened one (and had to go through another round of deworming !@#$^%&*() )
Ah well. This is what you get when, for once, you don't look at file names before opening them.
Bash.org quote from Techno Prince:
robT> Name ONE thing that your windows comp can do that my MAC cant
bawss> Right click.
Heh heh heh.
"Okay, so I wasn't hallucinating about Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills. All this time I thought it was some bad LSD I took back in 94."
Ditto.
***
Paley's New Clothes
"Superficially, irreducible complexity seems to resist Darwinian explanation, which requires that each adaptation or structure begets a distinct, independent fitness advantage in order to be selected.
To combat Behe, Shanks brings self-organization and complexity to the fore once again, referencing a basic chemistry experiment he had conducted (Shanks and Joplin, 1999). The well-known Belousov-Zhaobtinski reaction occurs when several chemicals are added to a beaker and spontaneously self-organize, producing a chemical oscillator whose occurrence requires the continued presence of all ingredients. Behe (2000) responded that the example fails to adhere to his "well-matched" criterion since one of the chemicals is a general-purpose oxidizing agent. However, if this is so, then Behe's chief challenge to Darwinists that biochemical pathways are irreducibly complex does not hold water either. Examples of such "low substrate specificity" are legion in the biochemical literature.
Shanks next outlines how irreducible complexity may be produced by naturalistic, Darwinian mechanisms. First, it is obvious that Behe simply overstates his case: biochemical systems often exhibit what the author terms "redundant complexity." That is, the functionality of many processes is not contingent on the faithful execution of a specific linear sequence. Rather, functionality owes itself to a surplus of related - and hence "redundant" - components. Such complexity is also manifest in the ability of compensatory systems to come to the rescue if a primary system fails to serve its function.
Moreover, whereas they may seem diametrically opposed, Shanks points out that irreducibly complex systems "can simply be viewed as limiting cases of redundantly complex systems" (p.187). Ontogenetic processes, such as gene duplication, ultimately make for redundant genes in a system. In turn, redundant genes may be deleted by mutations rendering some of them nonfunctional, or "pseudogenes." This is important for two reasons: 1) Since pseudogenes no longer contribute to the overall function of a system, it gives selection free reign to discover evolutionarily novel functions with such genes; and 2) Elimination of functional genes shows how biological systems can ultimately become irreducibly complex. That is, irreducible complexity represents a threshold by which further elimination of genes leads to non-functionality. At this point, evolution may apply selection pressure to ensure that this threshold is not crossed.
... the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics precludes the existence of complete nothingness. The ontological implications of such a basic fact are monumental, yet he remains mute: 1) The Christian doctrine of "creation ex nihilo" is rendered an impossibility; and 2) The very need for a Creator becomes superfluous. Indeed, several authors have argued (Barrow, 2002; Genz, 2001; Guth, 1998; Halliwell and Hawking, 1985) that the Big Bang quite plausibly could have sprung from an ever-present quantum vacuum of seething potentiality. In eminent theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking's (1988) famous words, "What place, then, for a creator"?"
***
A Very Pokemon Guy Fawkes - What happens when you strap 250 sparklers to a Pokemon and light them?
Revenge of the Right Brain - "Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion... The future no longer belongs to people who can reason with computer-like logic, speed, and precision. It belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind. Today - amid the uncertainties of an economy that has gone from boom to bust to blah - there's a metaphor that explains what's going on. And it's right inside our heads."
Mithgol's Soviet Firefox - "The above extension was first published 5 Mar 2005 (exactly 52 years after Stalin's death). The extension is a sign of my true gratitude: notwithstanding that the great Leader is dead (and all his achievements are ruined in Russia), there is now a new browser which brings ideals of Freedom and Communism to the masses of wired people."
The Possibilities of FTL: Or Fermi's Paradox Reconsidered - "The drive to place humanity at the center of the universe has led to a stream of assumptions that, as facts have been collected, are shown to be ill founded. The Ptolemaic Earth centered view was replaced by Copernican Sun centered view which in its time was also replaced. The assumption that we are alone in the universe is also under threat of replacement. One of the more interesting aspects of our apparent aloneness was pointed out by Enrico Fermi and is know as Fermi's Paradox "
"If everyone believes in the superiority of their race, must we respect and accept their beliefs? Respecting people's freedom of expression, belief and religion or atheism is one thing; that doesn't mean that we must respect any belief, however heinous. Of course human beings must be respected, but that doesn't mean that all beliefs must also be respected. Should we respect fascism, racism, nationalism, and ethnocentrism - they are all beliefs after all... Criticising beliefs is not racism. Is it racist to condemn fascism, nationalism, capitalism, sexism, religion? Does a critique of fascism, nationalism or racism promote abuse against fascists, nationalists, and racists? If we criticise child labour, does it mean we are promoting abuse against children who are forced to work? This is the pathetic whining of reactionaries who want to silence defenders of women's rights and frighten them into inactivity and submission." - hmm
Einstein's relatives' theories
"Albert Einstein has a signature equation, e=mc2, which predicts how energy relates to mass. ME Einstein of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has a whole set of equations that predict the composition of a pork carcass.
Einstein and several collaborators have published a series of studies - seven of them so far - in the Journal of Animal Science. Their "Evaluation of Alternative Measures of Pork Carcass Composition" appeared in 2001. It is a minor classic in the history of pork-production prediction literature.
ME Einstein also co-authored the doubly seminal "Utilisation of a Sperm Quality Analyser to Evaluate Sperm Quantity and Quality of Turkey Breeders". It was published in 2002 in the journal British Poultry Science."
***
Interesting sounding NUS events:
"Event Title: Serumpun Padi... R.O.C. (Relax One Corner) With Us!
Organizer: NUS Malay Language Society (PBMUKS)
Description: A Nite Full of Fun & Bonding among Undergrads in a Casual Gathering; at the same time, Be in The Loop of What's Happenin' inside the Malay Language Society!"
If anyone else had used the term, they'd have been slammed as racist.
"Event Title: Sociology Field Trip to CK Tangs
Organizer: NUS Sociology Society
Description: Learn all about the Sociology of Popular Culture, Consumption and Work from the expert who designed the new Tangs concept! An exciting first hand look into the workings of businesses and the modern consumer. Simply sign up for a one hour slot on any of the listed dates!"
Find out how evil corporations manipulate hapless consumers!
Unfortunately the time slots are all at times when I've lessons. Except for one on my free day. Hmm. Actually I don't mind going but no one's interested. Ah well.
"Event Title: Recruitment for Cheer Leaders
Organizer: Cheer Group of YDG (Youth Developer Group)
Description: Have you heard about CHEER DANCE AND CHEER LEADING before? This is a good opportunity for the GUYS AND GIRLS of NUS to participate in cheer where you can experience the excitement and joyfulness to become a cheerful cheer leader/dancer !! The good news is there are no requirements needed to join our cheer group; as we are all together here to learn and to have fun!"
Right.
"Event Title: Enigma - Le Masquerade
Organizer: NUS Students' Computing Club
Description: NUS Students' Computing Club hereby invites you to our very first social night affair of the season!
Be entertained by the night of games, socialising and glorious food being served to you by our humble butlers. Be there to meet "The One". Be there to not miss the fun and mystery."
I wonder who "The One" is. Maybe it's Jack the Ripper.
Random Trivia bit: When the one and only referendum in Singapore's history was held in 1962, over the merger with Malaysia, there were 3 choices on the ballot: yes, yes and yes.
Of course this is not something you'll learn in Propaganda class.
"This first and only National Referendum held in Singapore to date was to decide on the island's position within the Federation of Malaysia after merging with the Peninsular. Main political parties campaigned for different alternatives. PAP stood for Alternative A - a full merger of Singapore, Peninsular Malaya and the Borneo states, with Singapore retaining powers over certain areas. SPA represented Alternative C, with Singapore's status no different from other states." (National Referendum 1962)
***
!!!
(No, not the guy on the left with the suspicious soup with eyeballs and kidneys floating in it and the bad perm. The tubs on the right!)
!!!
***
StudioTraffic.com
Vincent introduced this site to me like so:
"u interested in making $ from home ma
juz need to surf the net to make $.."
Of course I was deeply skeptical, despite his claiming that his friend had already gotten a payout (due to his pumping in $100 from the start).
I was not entirely sure how it worked, but guessed it was something like this:
By viewing 200 sites a day (there's a script which automates the moving from site to site, so in theory you can leave it on for a few hours and come back later), you get awarded 1% of your "account level" (which starts off at $10 when you sign up, so at first you only earn $0.10 a day).
When you accumulate a minimum of $5, you can withdraw the money (speaking of which, Google AdSense's cheque is supposed to be coming along soon, but something seems to have choked at their side). However, you can also reinvest it to raise your account level (or pump in money yourself to raise your account level, which also has the benefit of needing you to view only 100 sites a day instead of 200). At the maximum account level of $15,000 (which can be reached solely by reinvestment, without pumping any of your own money in at all, you can be earning $4,650 a month within 2 years and 8 months of signing up.
Considering that the vast majority of sites served seem to be of a similar nature (ie Make money by surfing the web), I'm inclined to think that this is just a giant Multi-Level Marketing scheme of sorts (though there are only two levels here). After all, there is no free lunch in this world (unless, it might be said by some, you are a PRC scholar who comes to Singapore on a scholarship and then breaks his bond and disappears).
Looking at their FAQ, I found a few catches:
"When you signed up with us, we credited your account with a $10 bonus to show our appreciation. This is our welcome gift to you, which is good for an entire year. All membership upgrades will last one year from the time they are applied to the account."
In other words, you need to pump in money on a yearly basis.
"When can I get cash? - You can make cash withdrawals as long as your account level is above $100."
You don't actually see any money until a year has passed (assuming you surf the requisite number of sites everyday and reinvest all your profits). Inevitably, people are going to pump in at least $90 from the start.
However, the most damning piece of evidence against the site is that the day after I first visited the site, Norton AntiVirus detected a virus in one of my temporary directories. I found some Russian exes inside and my suspicions were aroused.
I summoned Task Manager and found many funny processes running ("mah.exe", "MediaPass", "sixtypopsix", "eliteigm32", "istsvc.exe" and the like, some of which refused to shut down [or shut down and immediately sprung back up]). And when I tried to run msconfig, it got shut down. Furthermore, there was an invisible IExplore window opened, which presumably would prevent the IE BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) from being fully removed. So it took a few attempts to deworm my (newly formatted) system, including 1 or 2 boots in Safe Mode (and I think some registry keys remain still, unremovable for some reason).
How all this rubbish got past Firefox is anyone's guess. Maybe it has something to do with the alert windows the site popped up ('Press ok to continue'). Or, more likely, the fact that since formatting my laptop I hadn't installed the 21 pending Windows Security Updates!
Vincent says he hasn't been hit by spyware. I've told him to report on his progress after a year.
***
Guest article:
NOTES FROM A SURVIVOR:
THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL OF CASH HARVEST CULT
Not so long ago, I was a member of one of the largest churches in Singapore, it appeared big, trendy, relaxing and a good place to socialize. Besides, it taught a Gospel that was all about self-improvement and prosperity, what’s not to like. I mean the Pastor has a wife who is a recording artiste, lives in a condo and drives a BMW 7-Series, what’s not to like? Hey, even if I didn’t like Christianity all that much, anywhere that taught me how good it was to be rich can’t be all bad.
Until I heard their explanations.
City Harvest Church, aka Cash Harvest Cult, preaches a Gospel of Prosperity that probably explains the fact that many of my cell group members did not live in tremendous wealth. The thing is that if you have a brain for economic theory and basic common sense, you would not for a minute believe this Gospel of Prosperity.
This Gospel of Prosperity basically uses Biblical figures to argue that many Biblical figures were in fact, the most prosperous of their time, and that the Bible is in fact the most pro-prosperity tome of its day.
For example, would you believe that ADAM was rich? Yes, Adam was rich. That sounds believable if you ask me. I mean, the concept of rich and poor is built on ownership, isn’t it, if you follow Marx? The owners and the owned, between the producers and those who own the means of production, isn’t it? If I was the only man on the planet, I would be the owner of everything, and therefore I would be the richest person on the Planet. And since there was no woman, there would be no pre-nuptials to sign, and I would not have to divide my property with anyone else. Therefore clearly if I was Adam, I would be rich, heck even if I didn’t have clothes to wear and walked around buck naked in the Garden of Eden all day. In fact, I would be so rich that I did not even know what poverty was, because there was no other man on earth that could be considered less “wealthy” than me. Cash Harvest Cult proves how rich Adam was, by saying that he owned GOLD.
Genesis 2:10-12 (New International Version)
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [a] and onyx are also there.)
And of course, the gold of that land is GOOD, since the Bible tells us so. But what is it good for? If there was only one man on Earth, he could not sustain himself on the Gold for food, neither could he want to waste his time mining, panning and beating the gold into ornaments for himself, even if he found it attractive. Besides, what could he exchange the gold for? There was no one else on the Planet, so there was no one to trade with. Didn’t gold gain its use as a medium of exchange only when more prople were around? My brain was on the verge of exploding from the all the facts that flew in the face of economic theory and good common sense.
No wonder all my friends weren’t too wealthy, and those that were wealthy, had parents that were not Christian. How could anyone that believed in this be rich?
Take it from me, why tithe to an institution that cannot even guide you on the basics of economic theory?
Seen and heard:
"A relationship like a shepard with his sheep...give me a break. You don't have "relationships" with sheep. You have lunch or your have business opportunities."
***
Seems there's a new M$N Virus spreading, I got the following messages from someone:
"hot pic!!
http://www.mxt-networkz.com/parishilton.pif"
Meanwhile other people have been sending me PIFs, and I accidentally opened one (and had to go through another round of deworming !@#$^%&*() )
Ah well. This is what you get when, for once, you don't look at file names before opening them.
Bash.org quote from Techno Prince:
robT> Name ONE thing that your windows comp can do that my MAC cant
bawss> Right click.
Heh heh heh.
"Okay, so I wasn't hallucinating about Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills. All this time I thought it was some bad LSD I took back in 94."
Ditto.
***
Paley's New Clothes
"Superficially, irreducible complexity seems to resist Darwinian explanation, which requires that each adaptation or structure begets a distinct, independent fitness advantage in order to be selected.
To combat Behe, Shanks brings self-organization and complexity to the fore once again, referencing a basic chemistry experiment he had conducted (Shanks and Joplin, 1999). The well-known Belousov-Zhaobtinski reaction occurs when several chemicals are added to a beaker and spontaneously self-organize, producing a chemical oscillator whose occurrence requires the continued presence of all ingredients. Behe (2000) responded that the example fails to adhere to his "well-matched" criterion since one of the chemicals is a general-purpose oxidizing agent. However, if this is so, then Behe's chief challenge to Darwinists that biochemical pathways are irreducibly complex does not hold water either. Examples of such "low substrate specificity" are legion in the biochemical literature.
Shanks next outlines how irreducible complexity may be produced by naturalistic, Darwinian mechanisms. First, it is obvious that Behe simply overstates his case: biochemical systems often exhibit what the author terms "redundant complexity." That is, the functionality of many processes is not contingent on the faithful execution of a specific linear sequence. Rather, functionality owes itself to a surplus of related - and hence "redundant" - components. Such complexity is also manifest in the ability of compensatory systems to come to the rescue if a primary system fails to serve its function.
Moreover, whereas they may seem diametrically opposed, Shanks points out that irreducibly complex systems "can simply be viewed as limiting cases of redundantly complex systems" (p.187). Ontogenetic processes, such as gene duplication, ultimately make for redundant genes in a system. In turn, redundant genes may be deleted by mutations rendering some of them nonfunctional, or "pseudogenes." This is important for two reasons: 1) Since pseudogenes no longer contribute to the overall function of a system, it gives selection free reign to discover evolutionarily novel functions with such genes; and 2) Elimination of functional genes shows how biological systems can ultimately become irreducibly complex. That is, irreducible complexity represents a threshold by which further elimination of genes leads to non-functionality. At this point, evolution may apply selection pressure to ensure that this threshold is not crossed.
... the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics precludes the existence of complete nothingness. The ontological implications of such a basic fact are monumental, yet he remains mute: 1) The Christian doctrine of "creation ex nihilo" is rendered an impossibility; and 2) The very need for a Creator becomes superfluous. Indeed, several authors have argued (Barrow, 2002; Genz, 2001; Guth, 1998; Halliwell and Hawking, 1985) that the Big Bang quite plausibly could have sprung from an ever-present quantum vacuum of seething potentiality. In eminent theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking's (1988) famous words, "What place, then, for a creator"?"
***
A Very Pokemon Guy Fawkes - What happens when you strap 250 sparklers to a Pokemon and light them?
Revenge of the Right Brain - "Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion... The future no longer belongs to people who can reason with computer-like logic, speed, and precision. It belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind. Today - amid the uncertainties of an economy that has gone from boom to bust to blah - there's a metaphor that explains what's going on. And it's right inside our heads."
Mithgol's Soviet Firefox - "The above extension was first published 5 Mar 2005 (exactly 52 years after Stalin's death). The extension is a sign of my true gratitude: notwithstanding that the great Leader is dead (and all his achievements are ruined in Russia), there is now a new browser which brings ideals of Freedom and Communism to the masses of wired people."
The Possibilities of FTL: Or Fermi's Paradox Reconsidered - "The drive to place humanity at the center of the universe has led to a stream of assumptions that, as facts have been collected, are shown to be ill founded. The Ptolemaic Earth centered view was replaced by Copernican Sun centered view which in its time was also replaced. The assumption that we are alone in the universe is also under threat of replacement. One of the more interesting aspects of our apparent aloneness was pointed out by Enrico Fermi and is know as Fermi's Paradox "
"If everyone believes in the superiority of their race, must we respect and accept their beliefs? Respecting people's freedom of expression, belief and religion or atheism is one thing; that doesn't mean that we must respect any belief, however heinous. Of course human beings must be respected, but that doesn't mean that all beliefs must also be respected. Should we respect fascism, racism, nationalism, and ethnocentrism - they are all beliefs after all... Criticising beliefs is not racism. Is it racist to condemn fascism, nationalism, capitalism, sexism, religion? Does a critique of fascism, nationalism or racism promote abuse against fascists, nationalists, and racists? If we criticise child labour, does it mean we are promoting abuse against children who are forced to work? This is the pathetic whining of reactionaries who want to silence defenders of women's rights and frighten them into inactivity and submission." - hmm
Einstein's relatives' theories
"Albert Einstein has a signature equation, e=mc2, which predicts how energy relates to mass. ME Einstein of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has a whole set of equations that predict the composition of a pork carcass.
Einstein and several collaborators have published a series of studies - seven of them so far - in the Journal of Animal Science. Their "Evaluation of Alternative Measures of Pork Carcass Composition" appeared in 2001. It is a minor classic in the history of pork-production prediction literature.
ME Einstein also co-authored the doubly seminal "Utilisation of a Sperm Quality Analyser to Evaluate Sperm Quantity and Quality of Turkey Breeders". It was published in 2002 in the journal British Poultry Science."
***
Interesting sounding NUS events:
"Event Title: Serumpun Padi... R.O.C. (Relax One Corner) With Us!
Organizer: NUS Malay Language Society (PBMUKS)
Description: A Nite Full of Fun & Bonding among Undergrads in a Casual Gathering; at the same time, Be in The Loop of What's Happenin' inside the Malay Language Society!"
If anyone else had used the term, they'd have been slammed as racist.
"Event Title: Sociology Field Trip to CK Tangs
Organizer: NUS Sociology Society
Description: Learn all about the Sociology of Popular Culture, Consumption and Work from the expert who designed the new Tangs concept! An exciting first hand look into the workings of businesses and the modern consumer. Simply sign up for a one hour slot on any of the listed dates!"
Find out how evil corporations manipulate hapless consumers!
Unfortunately the time slots are all at times when I've lessons. Except for one on my free day. Hmm. Actually I don't mind going but no one's interested. Ah well.
"Event Title: Recruitment for Cheer Leaders
Organizer: Cheer Group of YDG (Youth Developer Group)
Description: Have you heard about CHEER DANCE AND CHEER LEADING before? This is a good opportunity for the GUYS AND GIRLS of NUS to participate in cheer where you can experience the excitement and joyfulness to become a cheerful cheer leader/dancer !! The good news is there are no requirements needed to join our cheer group; as we are all together here to learn and to have fun!"
Right.
"Event Title: Enigma - Le Masquerade
Organizer: NUS Students' Computing Club
Description: NUS Students' Computing Club hereby invites you to our very first social night affair of the season!
Be entertained by the night of games, socialising and glorious food being served to you by our humble butlers. Be there to meet "The One". Be there to not miss the fun and mystery."
I wonder who "The One" is. Maybe it's Jack the Ripper.
Post ID: 111007977683566187
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