"I hate the outdoors. To me the outdoors is where the car is." - Will Durst

Random Playlist Song: Elgar - Chanson de Matin

***

I feel like getting yellow paint and drawing yellow boxes outside LT 11, as well as other places where smokers like to puff. Unfortunately NUS is boring and strait-laced. Though I hear some people improvised fireworks on the roof of one of the Engineering building some years back, and when they ran out of control, they fled in all directions before the police came.

NIE should hold a crash course for our lecturers and teaching assistants. Some of them would benefit greatly.

Quotes:

The most creative example would be: you think about you have a baby boy, ok, you measure its height everyday. And suppose you plant a tree in your backyar, with the baby boy. And every year you measure the height of the tree at the height of the baby, and then you can regress your baby's height over the height of the tree. And you'll definitely see R square [to be] very high... You cannot say that the growth of [the] tree caused the growth of [the] baby, okay. Of course, unless, in some magic world that's true. So based on... you live in some magic world that's true, then the regression really tell you causal relationship (imagine, backyard, and, on, measure)

[During the makeup lecture] Now I have to move on, otherwise I'll have to give another makeup lecture.

[After a plug for the Economist] Honestly, browsing old issues... will not help you perform better in your midterm or final exam.

Cash-in-advance - CIA. A very bad acronym again, but it's okay.

[On the government and the central bank] Most countries - central banks are independent. Of course, if you go to Africa, they're the same thing.

[On imprecise use of the term 'white horse'] forgot i was talking to an arts student. i've gone back to using terms loosely. How liberating! (sms)

[Lecturer on an economic model: For convenience, Williamson sets it to 0.] For convenience, let's do away with the maths.

The truth of the matter is your tutor is sick, so he has to be gone... Sorry, not 'he's going to be gone'.

[Female lecturer:] He graded the midterm... If you have a problem with the grading, you look for him, because I don't have what he has. (???)

[On a digital handout] You'll get a typewritten sheet of paper. Whatever, you print it out, it's typewritten.

It's very interesting to see this equation, because George W. Bush doesn't seem to think the lifetime budget constraint holds. So he keeps spending and spending. We'll see what happens soon.

[On her definition of the classical dichotomy] Trust me. This is the correct definition. Or the less misleading definition.

You can do an experiment and go around asking people, or economists, or people who think they are economists, whether they think money is neutral... This we will do in future lectures. It's the exciting part.

2 by 2 mare'trix (matrix)

from this gair'm (game)

the pee off (payoff)

[On a zero-sum game] Fortunately, in my class, I don't play such a game.

This is my bestest strategy (best)

Player 1 is the woes player (rows)

ah 1 s (o)

[On the different pronunciation of lecturers] You know what this is called? The flavours of asia.

I rather do maths than do essays. [Me: Then do 'mathematical economics'.] That one is too much maths. (has)

[On Freud] His theories were very circular... If you were very violently opposed to homosexuals, maybe it was because you were a latent homosexual. If you were sympathetic to homosexuals, maybe it was because you were a latent homosexual... Anything could support the theory.

[On vicarious discharge of deprivation - eg TV violence as a safety valve] I think it only applies to hunger and thirst. It doesn't apply to sex - I'm not the best judge of that. You may [be].

Men express aggression more physically... Women derogate their rivals. They say nasty things about competing women. That certainly counts as aggression.