Nigel Fong

A-level notes

2010-12-25T14:58:00.002+08:00

Free for use and sharing. Click to download.

H2 Bio excluding SCID
H2 Econs
H2 Math
H3 Chemistry (memory parts only)
H3 Economics

Disclaimer: may contain errors. These notes are intended as memory guides and are not suitable for content learning.

Moving to facebook

2009-02-08T00:03:00.000+08:00

If you don't know already... i'll use the notes function on facebook to make future postings... so add me and goodbye to this blog!

The world's oldest profession

2008-12-09T11:29:00.003+08:00

Letter in Economist - Mike Gallagher

Given that some countries have already nationalized the world's second-oldest profession (banking), why not nationalize the oldest? ... Governments could use the huge revenues that prostitution generates to bail out even more banks... As well as being the world's oldest profession, perhaps prostitution is the most honest, given the recent shenanigans by all those involved in the credit crunch. We are all civil servants now.

Malaysia, truly asia

2008-11-17T18:04:00.002+08:00

Malaysian Parliment

Paid to argue while everything productive is at a standstill.

Science and Anti science in RI

2008-10-04T23:59:00.002+08:00

Welcome to... the raffles institution science hub.

Enchanting, enthusing, expensive painting.

Did you spot the errors? Try again :)

These should be changed by now, thankfully.

Shopping malls not in God's purpose

2008-09-21T15:00:00.004+08:00

Article below

Why is new creation church now getting into the business of running shopping malls? Their excuse is that they have too much money doing nothing in the bank...

This is a pretty ridiculous affair. God did not set up churches to raise capital and run investments... the church exists as a channel for god's love to reach out to more and more people. Riches on earth don't last - why can't new creation church get this right? This smacks of the sin of greed and serves only to distract from god. Even from a non-religious point of view - you would expect churches to be furthering the values of core humanity, not that of profit.

And this is not the only manifestation: Some pastors are paid more than necessary to sustain a comfortable life - unconsciously justified by some by the 'personality cults' that are a direct product of the the Pentecostal or the Charismatic movement. I tend to agree with the quintessence of these traditions - direct personal experience of God and so on - but not the way Christianity is being marketed and steeped in the ways of the world.

If new creation has too much money "doing nothing" in the bank, it would be prudent to make that money "do something" - local charitable outreaches, overseas missions, and so on. Something in line with God's purpose, not building shopping malls.

*I've yet to see such pastors though - just heard of them

Fr. today's straits times:

Come 2011, a futuristic-looking lifestyle hub with a 5,000-seat theatre, restaurants, shops, chill-out wine bars and even dance clubs will emerge in Buona Vista.

Property giant CapitaLand and a church-linked business company, Rock Productions, announced yesterday that they will jointly develop an integrated complex in Singapore’s one-north science hub at a cost of $660 million.

CapitaLand’s share of the proposed development, including the ownership of about 1,000 carpark lots, will be about $380 million.

Rock Productions - the business arm of the 16,000- strong New Creation Church - will invest $280 million.

The complex, which will be connected directly to the Buona Vista MRT station, will be sited within the 17ha Vista Xchange, the business service centre as well as lifestyle and cultural hub of one-north.

Designed by Mr Andrew Bromberg of Aedas Hong Kong, it will have eight levels of civic and cultural space, and four levels of retail and entertainment space.

The project came about after JTC Corporation last Friday awarded Rock Productions the tender to build, lease and operate an integrated civic, cultural, retail and entertainment hub at Vista Xchange on a 60-year lease at a land price of $189 million.

Rock Productions had spoken to a few partners and decided on CapitaLand, which entered into an agreement through its indirect wholly owned subsidiary One Trustee to acquire the hub’s retail and entertainment zone, which has a gross floor area of more than 24,000 sq m.

CapitaLand Retail will also manage the entire development of the integrated hub.

It is proposing an open concept for the retail and entertainment zone, which will be spread over two floors above the ground and two basement levels. The basement levels will house chic tenants that will include restaurants, cafes, thematic dance clubs, a concept food hall and a gourmet supermarket.

CapitaLand Retail chief executive officer Pua Seck Guan said the zone presents a unique opportunity for CapitaLand to extend its presence to the Buona Vista area.

The zone will cater to the affluent crowd from the nearby Bukit Timah, Holland and Rochester Park areas, as well as the visitor catchments from the one-north communities, surrounding estates and tertiary institutions, he said.

Rock Productions will own and manage the hub’s civic and cultural zone, which has a gross floor area of 30,000 sq m. This zone will have a 5,000-seat state-of-the-art theatre designed by world renowed performing arts facility design consultants Artec Consultants and Bromberg.

Among Artec’s best-known projects are the Lucerne Culture Centre in Switzerland and the concert hall and opera theatre at the Esplanade here.

Rock Productions has engaged IMG Artists, a global performing arts management company, to work on the marketing and programming efforts for the zone.

A major tenant has already been secured.

New Creation Church, which now holds its services at The Rock Auditorium at Suntec City, will be the anchor tenant of the theatre, using the space on a large part of Sundays and one mid-week night, said Rock Productions director Matthew Kang.

Rock Productions also owns and manages The Rock Auditorium and Marine Cove, the recreational and dining establishment at East Coast Park.

--------------------

Fantasy - Earth Wind and Fire

2008-09-20T20:25:00.002+08:00

Every man has a place
In his heart there's a space
And the world can't erase his fantasies
Take a ride in the sky
On our ship fantasise
All your dreams will come true right away

And we will live together
Until the twelfth of never
Our voices will ring forever as one

Every thought is a dream
Rushing by in a stream
Bringing life to your kingdom of doing
Take a ride in the sky
On our ship fantasise
All your dreams will come true miles away

Our voices will ring together
Until the twelfth of never
We all will love together as one

Come to see victory
In a land called fantasy
Loving life a new degree
Bring your mind to everlasting liberty

As one

Come to see victory
In a land called fantasy
Loving life for you and me
To behold to your soul is ecstasy
You will find other kind
That has been in search of you
Many lives have brought you to
Recognise it's your life now in review

As you stay for the play
Fantasy has in store for you
A glowing light will see you through
It's your day shining day
All your dreams come true

As you glide in your stride
With the wind as you fly away
Give a smile from your lips and say
Are you free yes I'm free
And I'm on my way

The Lamentation of the Wind

2008-08-10T16:31:00.016+08:00

chasing after the numb wind,
i uncover

the multipolar and parallel realities
that colour and underlie
the entirety of truth and existence.

the powering and dismembering ideals
that converge and diverge
as visions and faiths of utopia.

the stark contradictions
and bittersweet juxtapositions
transcending space and place and time

the unifying warmth
of humanity threaded
through the utilitarian beauty of DNA.

alternatively, the saving grace.

Add RNAi. Chop chop.

Descartes joke

2008-07-21T21:10:00.003+08:00

Descartes went to McDonalds and ordered a burger. The waiter asked him, "would you like fries too?" Descartes replied, "I think not"... and disappeared.

If you didn't get it: Descartes, the philosopher, said Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore i am). Therefore if he says he thinks not, then he is not.

$B$

2008-07-16T00:14:00.001+08:00

Luckily this doesn't happen when i'm going home. Longest so far is 50min. Sigh.

Despair

2008-07-02T21:13:00.001+08:00

Koped from despair.com (they r actually v witty too! - if u like them despair.com sells calendars, posters etc etc)

Black button

2008-06-29T01:45:00.000+08:00

Cram school

2008-06-21T00:26:00.000+08:00

Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills

SEOUL, South Korea — It is 10:30 p.m. and students at the elite Daewon prep school here are cramming in a study hall that ends a 15-hour school day. A window is propped open so the evening chill can keep them awake. One teenager studies standing upright at his desk to keep from dozing.

A student and teacher at an elite South Korean school, the Minjok Leadership Academy, where sights are set on the Ivy League. More Photos »

Kim Hyun-kyung, who has accumulated nearly perfect scores on her SATs, is multitasking to prepare for physics, chemistry and history exams.

“I can’t let myself waste even a second,” said Ms. Kim, who dreams of attending Harvard, Yale or another brand-name American college. And she has a good shot. This spring, as in previous years, all but a few of the 133 graduates from Daewon Foreign Language High School who applied to selective American universities won admission.

It is a success rate that American parents may well envy, especially now, as many students are swallowing rejection from favorite universities at the close of an insanely selective college application season.

“Going to U.S. universities has become like a huge fad in Korean society, and the Ivy League names — Harvard, Yale, Princeton — have really struck a nerve,” said Victoria Kim, who attended Daewon and graduated from Harvard last June.

Daewon has one major Korean rival, the Minjok Leadership Academy, three hours’ drive east of Seoul, which also has a spectacular record of admission to Ivy League colleges.

How do they do it? Their formula is relatively simple. They take South Korea’s top-scoring middle school students, put those who aspire to an American university in English-language classes, taught by Korean and highly paid American and other foreign teachers, emphasize composition and other skills crucial to success on the SATs and college admissions essays, and — especially this — urge them on to unceasing study.

Both schools seem to be rethinking their grueling regimen, at least a bit. Minjok, a boarding school, has turned off dormitory surveillance cameras previously used to ensure that students did not doze in late-night study sessions. Daewon is ending its school day earlier for freshmen. Its founder, Lee Won-hee, worried in an interview that while Daewon was turning out high-scoring students, it might be falling short in educating them as responsible citizens.

“American schools may do a better job at that,” Dr. Lee said.

Still, the schools are highly rigorous. Both supplement South Korea’s required, lecture-based national curriculum with Western-style discussion classes. Their academic year is more than a month longer than at American high schools. Daewon, which costs about $5,000 per year to attend, requires two foreign languages besides English. Minjok, where tuition, board and other expenses top $15,000, offers Advanced Placement courses and research projects.

And, oh yes. Both schools suppress teenage romance as a waste of time.

“What are you doing holding hands?” a Daewon administrator scolded an adolescent couple recently, according to his aides. “You should be studying!”

Students do not seem to complain. Park Yeshong, one of Kim Hyun-kyung’s classmates, said attractions tended to fade during hundreds of hours of close-quarters study. “We know each other too well to fall in love,” she said. Many American educators would kill to have such disciplined pupils.

Both schools reserve admission for highly motivated students; the application process resembles that at many American colleges, where students are judged on their grade-point averages, as well as their performance on special tests and in interviews.

“Even my worst students are great,” said Joseph Foster, a Williams College graduate who teaches writing at Daewon. “They’re professionals; if I teach them, they’ll learn it. I get e-mails at 2 a.m. I’ll respond and go to bed. When I get up, I’ll find a follow-up question mailed at 5 a.m.”

Korean applications to Harvard alone have tripled, to 213 this spring, up from 66 in 2003, said William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions. Harvard has 37 Korean undergraduates, more than from any foreign country except Canada and Britain. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have a total of 103 Korean undergraduates; 34 graduated from Daewon or Minjok.

This year, Daewon and Minjok graduates are heading to universities like Stanford, Chicago, Duke and seven of the eight Ivy League universities — but not to Harvard. Instead, Harvard accepted four Korean students from three other prep schools.

“That was certainly not any statement” about the Daewon and Minjok schools, Mr. Fitzsimmons said. “We’re alert to getting kids from schools where we haven’t had them before, but we’d never reject an applicant simply because he or she came from a school with a history of sending students to Harvard.”

South Korea’s academic year starts in March, so the 2008 class of Daewon’s Global Leadership Program, which prepares students for study at foreign universities, graduated in February.

One graduate was Kim Soo-yeon, 19, who was accepted by Princeton this month. Daewon parents tend to be wealthy doctors, lawyers or university professors. Ms. Kim’s father is a top official in the Korean Olympic Committee.

Ms. Kim developed fierce study habits early, watching her mother scold her older sister for receiving any score less than 100 on tests. Even a 98 or a 99 brought a tongue-lashing.

“Most Korean mothers want their children to get 100 on all the tests in all the subjects,” Ms. Kim’s mother said.

Ms. Kim’s highest aspiration was to attend a top Korean university, until she read a book by a Korean student at Harvard about American universities. Immediately she put up a sign in her bedroom: “I’m going to an Ivy League!”

Even while at Daewon, Ms. Kim, like thousands of Korean students, took weekend classes in English, physics and other subjects at private academies, raising her SAT scores by hundreds of points. “I just love to do well on the tests,” she said.

As bright as she is, she was just one great student among many, said Eric Cho, Daewon’s college counselor. Sitting at his computer terminal at the school, perched on a craggy eastern hilltop overlooking the Seoul skyline, Mr. Cho scrolled through the class of 2008’s academic records.

Their average combined SAT score was 2203 out of 2400. By comparison, the average combined score at Phillips Exeter, the New Hampshire boarding school, is 2085. Sixty-seven Daewon graduates had perfect 800 math scores.

Kim Hyun-kyung, 17, scored perfect 800s on the SAT verbal and math tests, and 790 in writing. She is scheduled to take nine Advanced Placement tests next month, in calculus, physics, chemistry, European history and five other subjects. One challenge: she has taken none of these courses. Instead, she is teaching herself in between classes at Daewon, buying and devouring textbooks.

So she is busy. She rises at 6 a.m. and heads for her school bus at 6:50. Arriving at Daewon, she grabs a broom to help classmates clean her classroom. Between 8 and noon, she hears Korean instructors teach supply and demand in economics, Korean soils in geography and classical poets in Korean literature.

At lunch she joins other raucous students, all, like her, wearing blue blazers, in a chow line serving beans and rice, fried dumpling and pickled turnip, which she eats with girlfriends. Boys, who sit elsewhere, wolf their food and race to a dirt lot for a 10-minute pickup soccer game before afternoon classes.

Kim Hyun-kyung joins other girls at a hallway sink to brush her teeth before reporting to French literature, French culture and English grammar classes, taught by Korean instructors. At 3:20, her English language classes begin. This day, they include English literature, taught by Mani Tadayon, a polyglot graduate of the University of California at Berkeley who was born in Iran, and government and politics, taught by Hugh Quigley, a former Wall Street lawyer.

Evening study hall begins at 7:45. She piles up textbooks on an adjoining desk, where they glare at her like a to-do list. Classmates sling backpacks over seats, prop a window open and start cramming. Three hours later, the floor is littered with empty juice cartons and water bottles. One girl has nodded out, head on desk. At 10:50 a tone sounds, and Ms. Kim heads for a bus that will wend its way through Seoul’s towering high-rise canyons to her home, south of the Han River.

“I feel proud that I’ve endured another day,” she said.

The schedule at the Minjok academy, on a rural campus of tile-roofed buildings in forested hills, appears even more daunting. Students rise at 6 for martial arts, and thereafter, wearing full-sleeved, gray-and-black robes, plunge into a day of relentless study that ends just before midnight, when they may sleep.

But most keep cramming until 2 a.m., when dorm lights are switched off, said Gang Min-ho, a senior. Even then some students turn on lanterns and keep going, Mr. Gang said. “Basically we lead very tired lives,” he said.

Students sometimes report for classes so exhausted that Alexander Ganse, a German who teaches European history, said he asked, “Did you go to bed at all last night?”

“But we’re not only nerds!” interrupted Choi Jung-yun, who grew up in San Diego. Minjok students play sports, take part in many clubs and even have a rock band, she said. Ambassador Vershbow, who plays the drums, confirmed that with photographs that showed him jamming with Minjok’s rockers during a visit to the school last year.

There are other hints of slackening. A banner once hung on a Minjok building. “This school is a paradise for those who want to study and a hell for those who do not,” it read. But it was taken down after faculty members deemed it too harsh, said Son Eun-ju, director of counseling.

South Korea is not the only country sending more students to the United States, but it seems to be a special case. Some 103,000 Korean students study at American schools of all levels, more than from any other country, according to American government statistics. In higher education, only India and China, with populations more than 20 times that of South Korea’s, send more students.

“Preparing to get to the best American universities has become something of a national obsession in Korea,” said Alexander Vershbow, the American ambassador to South Korea.

2 fun youtubes

2008-06-17T02:00:00.000+08:00

1. "I will derive" (We should get certain person to sing this in math class hahaha)

2. Organic Chemistry: 7 Clues from Obi-Wan

epiphany

2008-06-11T21:55:00.002+08:00

HUMANITIES: sociology, international relations, econs etc are core humanities through which society is modeled and predictions made. geog and hist are tools to study society, lenses through which we can learn about humanity. philo and lit are underlying skills.

(a similar comment about the sciences will earn me a lot of pokes... )

Celebrate... think about celebrating

2008-06-05T22:48:00.000+08:00

see comments below

Today - Weekend, May 31, 2008

ONE of the greatest inventions in human history, and certainly the most delightful, is the celebration.

No other creature on earth celebrates. Some say the elephants have learned to mourn, and everyone knows the dolphins have learned to play. But people are the only creatures on the planet who actually celebrate a happy event.

You don’t see birds dance around an egg or antelope fuss over a birthday. And you can’t really count a doggie jumping up and down at the joy of receiving its master (doggies jump up and down at pretty much anything).

So if one of the greatest gifts of mankind is the capacity to celebrate, why is it so hard for the adult Singaporean to have a celebration?

It’s not about just having a good time. Expatriates havealready told us we don’t know how to party. When they invite us to one, we go, we eat, we hang out with our own families and then scoot early. We don’t stay and celebrate. Or party. At a party.

But the celebration is something more. It is that moment or day or period we mark something good, usually an achievement of sorts, and it can be done loud with a party or with as little as a drink at the coffeeshop with friends.

And that, it can be safely said, is not a strength of Singaporeans.

You seldom hear of people here calling for a celebration. When someone hits a milestone, they seem to look right past it to the next — an endless marathon with no tape to breast.

Okay, say we put it down to Asian modesty. We are not the sort to trumpet our achievements with a party, even though we may show off in other ways, with the flashy phone or latest car or coruscating jewellery.

Some even say it is the legacy of the immigrants’ culture. We are transients, collecting, never truly spending unless it is on an investment to make more. Gratification is waste.

Perhaps we even fear the curse of the third eye, so we look past the milestone and don’t dwell on it in case the heavens humble us with a calamity. It’s very Asian to be negative.

After all, statutory holidays aside, all our major celebrations are imported from the West, commercially manufactured events that probably bring more delight to people who run the classifieds sections than the actual targets waiting in long queues for dinner on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

But in modern Singapore, shouldn’t we stop now and then and mark a milestone in the life that our grandparents and parents gave up their own countries and families to build for us here?

If we could celebrate a personal milestone, invite home for a drink the ones who helped us make it possible because nothing good can be achieved only by self-will, no matter what we think — every pinnacle has a broader base.

And a thousand times better, pull together a celebration for someone we love or just like, to mark their personal milestones. Or if we are the focus of a celebration, can we accept it with grace, not embarrassment? Do we know how to receive a toast, let alone give it?

Imagine what a country we would be then. The MRT, the buses, the taxis and cars would be filled every day with a million people heading off every evening after work to a celebration of one sort or another. There would be more smiles, even for the stranger.

Now you may say this is a strange time to call for a culture of celebration when for many Singaporeans the struggle of daily life just got worse, with the price of nearly everything up by a measure. The mood, one could say, is suitably grim.

But we are already famously grim. We are one of only a handful of countries in the world, which have spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars just to ask ourselves to smile.

So perhaps it is in the tougher times we need to look for cheer the most, and flit to it like a moth to light. What else is there in life worth doing?

------------

Comments:
First, we should ask ourselves "what kind of celebration". It is a fallacy to equivocate all kinds of celebrations. An element of conspicuous, boisterous, and seemingly superficial fun seems intrinsic to the author's concept of celebration - indeed Singaporeans seem to lack this. Is this the only kind of celebration? Quiet reflection or a warm dinner would do as well, and in fact may be more valuable.

McImposition: The subservience of consumers to the commodified fast food culture (RA Geog Assg)

2008-05-27T00:21:00.002+08:00

ABSTRACT

The continued popularity and growth of McDonalds in the age of SuperSize Me eludes intuition. It is the result of Mcdonalds’ exploitation of the consumer, and a microcosm of larger narratives in modern consumer society. This case study provides a basis from which to elucidate the power dynamics of consumption. I will analyze various scales of dialectics: (1) individual consumers’ subservience to fast food culture, (2) The Americanized fast food culture and its erosive hegemony over local postcolonial cultures, (3) plotting McDonalds on resultant sociocultural landscapes, and (4) possible recourses, hence showing how consumers and cultures are indeed subservient but not powerless in the face of the commodifed fast food culture.

INTRODUCTION

In the age of Supersize Me, the Class Action Lawsuit, and growing consumer health consciousness, it eludes intuition how McDonald’s maintains its grip on the more than 47 million customers (McDonald’s, 2007) it serves worldwide each day. Americans spend more on fast food than on PCs, cars, and college education (Schlosser, 2002); more than a third of British adults prefer a diet consisting mainly of fast food and beer (Pryer et al, 2001). In the developing world, 2000 McDonalds open each year.
Fast Food joints are reluctant to sell just food – they may go bankrupt – rather, they shove “extra value meals” of digestive and emotional gratification down the throats of unwitting consumers, carefully-engineered to program the consumer to come back for more. How does the fast food industry pull this off?

1. THE INDIVIDUAL CONSUMER’S SUBSERVIENCE TO FAST FOOD

Capitalism is widely perceived to be the dehumanizing antithesis of aesthetic interests, and yet, one defining feature of contemporary mature capitalism is the “convergence of the economic and the cultural” (Scott, 2000), where “cultural meanings are regularly appropriated for commercial ends, and human agency subordinated to the logic of capital” (Jackson, 2002). An emphasis on meaning, identity and representation does not trump the continued capitalistic salience of the economy.

Fast food is one instance of a commodified symbolic form (after Scott, 2000), where ‘commodifed’ in the Marxian sense denotes goods and services produced for capitalist profit, and ‘symbolic form’ denotes goods with significant emotional content. McDonalds is not in the business of selling food, more importantly; they sell customers the desire to consume their food. The means and relations of production have been revolutionized, such that fast food is masked in the materiality of the commodity (after Marx: commodity fetish) - i.e. severed from the social and spatial relations that structure its productions (Goss, 1993), and given artificial and hollow meanings and social place. This meaning and place is the construct of the mammoth fast food industry, and in its face consumers are subservient “passive and vulnerable victims of the force field which they don’t understand” (Goss, 1993), such that find food wrapped in McDonald’s wrappers better tasting than identical samples in generic wrappers (Robinson, 2007). I shall now elucidate the meaning and place of fast food, and how it is constructed.

For instance, consider how McDonalds takes pride in being ‘fast’ food, an inherently quick and easy food concept because little forward planning, waiting, or clearing up is required. While time poverty is the product of the post-modern capitalist sociocultural milleu, and not fast food per se, the Fast Food industry “understands, profit from, and encourages an occupation with haste” (Gleick, 1999). McDonalds relentlessly emphasizes its speed: it once gave out free apple pies if food was not ready in 60 seconds; advertisements have drawn parallels between Tennis champion Ivanisevic’s serve (216kph) and McDonalds quick burger assembly. With relentless subliminal messaging, McDonald’s (together with the rest of capitalist society) subtly imposes on consumers the perceived threat that time is in chronically short supply, Brewis (2005) concludes that “many of us could therefore be seen as cultural slaves to M-time – we lose a more organic and rhythmic sense of time as the natural context of life”.

Similarly, fast food branding tends to juxtapose vivid, recognizable symbols (e.g. the golden arches, Ronald McDonald, the burger) alongside the corporate images McDonalds’ seeks to portray: themes of youthful exuberance or being ‘cool’, healthy lifestyles, sheer enjoyment (e.g. smiles on children’s’ faces upon getting a Happy meal), and friendship (e.g. KFC’s buddy meal). (Also note caption on page 2). McDonalds creates lifestyle and culture built around it, shaping and exploiting the sociocultural landscape for profit (this will further discussed in part 3)

There are multiplicities of forces working against McDonalds: health concerns (championed by Supersize Me), the frequent consumer’s gastronomic boredom, and the “high-cultural disdain for conspicuous mass-consumption resulting from the legacy of a puritanical fear of the moral corruption inherent in commercialism and materialism” (Goss, 1993). I extend Goss (1993)’s argument against the fear of conspicuous con-sumption in shopping malls to address fast food: McDonalds assuages this collective fear and guilt over the evils of fast food by designing a fantasized disassociation from the act of consumption (i.e. you consume the lifestyle, not the burger) to distract consumers from the emptiness of the burger.

The sheer irony of fast food being promoted as ‘healthy’, and what was cheap American street food being divorced from its history and rebranded as ‘trendy’ expounds the muscle of the fast food industry holds over consumer perceptions. The caucus locus is the social power relations of production and consumption (Sack, 1988) – the capital and the brainpower of fast food giants acting from young on the individual mind, subordinating the individual to the postmodernist “consumption of artificial and hollow signs over and above material utilities” (Baudrillard, 1981). The world is not merely represented in commodifed images, but consists of such images – the image having more substantive effect than reality (Baudrillard, 1993). It’s all a lie – one that allows McDonalds to sidestep its replaceable material utility to create an irreplaceable image consumers flock towards.

The realist view sidesteps this to state that perception does not matter, because “a real world independent of human perception” exists (Unwin, 1992). And yet the consumer’s ‘choice’ – or lack thereof – whether or not to step into McDonalds is predicated upon perception and not higher ‘truths’ that are not privy to their decision making, even if such ‘truths’ exist.

This view may seem overly deterministic; power play and presiding influences restricting the field of human agency being restricted does not prove that this agency is itself dead. We may argue that it is ultimately the consumer’s sovereign choice to step into McDonalds.

Consider, however, how “consumption undoes contexts to create contexts, undoes social relation to create social relations, and undoes meaning to create meaning” (Sack, 1988). Whether or not truth is relative, in a world where interpretations are relative, such that the “interpretation that persists at a particular time is a function of power and not truth” (Nietzsche), we see the contexts and meanings of consumption being engineered by those at the profiteering end of consumption, such that the agency of the consumer exists only within the boundaries drawn by the mammoth industry; consumer sovereignty over the consumption of the irreplaceable images and identities constituted by McDonalds is not dead, but it is a limited and elusive ideal.

2. THE AMERICANIZED FAST FOOD CULTURE AND ITS EROSIVE HEGEMONY OVER LOCAL POSTCOLONIAL CULTURES

The global McDonalds presence is not just a product of post-Fordist economic globalization, but one of cultural globalization (Americanization); the exportation of fast food is not only that of commodity but also that of culture and lifestyle. Such a culture, of course, promotes consumption and hence profits.
In this section I shall focus on postcolonial societies. In contrast with other colonial powers, such societies bear little native commonality with American culture and hence exhibit marked cultural change. I deliberately exclude societies like China, as such societies were subject to imperial power but not formal colonies, and “the colonial epoch is not the defining feature of societies with longer historical trajectories. (Sidaway, 2000).”

Culture is of exceptional significance in postcolonial societies, in which contradictions between local cultures and colonial influences lead to defining tensions that mark a colonial present: “underlying all (postcolonial) economic, social, and political resistance is the struggle for representation” (McEwan, 2003). Arguably, culture, being a set of predominant attitudes and way of life shared by members of a society (Hofstede, 1997), is by definition organically grown. By logical extension, Americanization can only happen if a society willingly drifts in that direction.

Indeed this is to some extent the case. Layers of historical change and the lived experience of the colonial past have led to the subliminal acceptance of the superiority of the colonial masters and more generally the West. Hence “what is in the west is referred to modernity and progress” (McEwan, 2003). This is the universalizing knowledge produced by neoimperialist power. Hence the propagation of the fast food culture can be seen as an inevitable part in the larger currents the colonial present, not the doing of fast food companies.

And yet this fails to discount my core argument that consumers and cultures are subservient to the fast food culture. Indeed the propagation of the fast food culture is not merely McDonald’s doing, but a larger structural tug by Western influences; this, still, cannot absolve McDonald’s.

We see today’s world order as one shaped by the economic and political clout of the first world, echoing Nietzche’s postmodernist view that the “interpretation that persists at a particular time is a function of power and not truth”. Capitalist paradigms, expounded by Ritzer’s (1998) tenets of McDonaldization (efficiency, control, calculability, predictability), and the hegemonic order of cultures have led to the convergence of cultures towards greater uniformity and the sacrifice of the “unique, personal, communal, spontaneous and free dimensions of human life” (Ram, 2004).

Ritzer (2003a) draw a dichotomy between two extremes of globalization: glocalization (the integration of the global and the local) and grobalization (the global consuming the local). My argument thus far has pointed towards grobalization, but there are also cases where the local survives to some extent. McDonalds offers localized fare, exploiting local culture to its benefit: McKebabs are served in Israel, McVeggie and McCurry Pans in India. Such surviving local flavours, however, seem merely superficial and symbolic, and in fact show how cultural meanings are appropriated for commercial ends. They in no way discount the structural uniformity of the fast food culture.

To some extent Americanized fast food culture creates new cultural space, providing a “surrogate identity for those who do not identify with their own” (Ram, 2004) (hence greater acceptance among youth). On the other hand, the appeal of McDonaldized efficiency has diminished that of slower-paced local cultures; “Attempting to defend traditional cultural forms against cheap consumerism while simultaneously encouraging market forces as the only logical arbiter of human emotion is a losing game” (Ram, 2004). McDonalds has shifted the goalposts of expectations. To compete, traditional food are often forced to McDonaldize i.e. implement the McDonaldization tenets to appeal to consumers (Ritzer, 1997). In Israel, street food like the traditional falafel, once an Israeli tourist symbol have “been rescued from parochialism and upgraded to a world standard-bearer of ‘Israeli fast food’, or as one observer put it, transformed from grub to bread” (Ram, 2004). French cafes have likewise “adopted the fast food formula” (Fantasia, 1995). Varieties of local cultural identities licensed under the uniform structure of global capitalist commercial expansion disguises the unified formula of capital, thereby fostering legitimacy or even sales (Ram, 2004).

McDonalds is not a death knell for local foods, but the McDonaldized culture and structural uniformity that prevails as truth in the age of Western hegemony, easily accepted by the capitalist soul, entails the erosion of old ways of life.

3. PLOTTING MCDONALDS ON URBAN SOCIOCULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Human behaviour is moulded by social forces and relations of production (after: Marx). McDonalds produces, simultaneously, “the objects of consumption and the social subjects to consume them” (Goss, 1993). Let us plot McDonalds on the sociocultural landscapes that it has taken over.

The pricing and ubiquity of McDonalds such that it is accessible to large sections of society has, in a way, made it a mass-market social leveler in most societies (except for the very rich or the very poor). Fast food is seen as a “ubiquitous point of assembly, if not worship” (Stephenson, 1989) simply because it is accessible and acceptable to almost all. In social contexts where fast food joints are the de-facto meeting place, individuals tend to conform to keep up with this norm of reputability (this parallels the conspicuous consumption in Veblen’s 1899 theory of the leisure class).

The power dynamics and ubiquity of McDonalds has led to a distinctive transformation of urban sociocultural landscapes. A geographical sense of place is not irrelevant from this discussion: localities are the totality of social structure and human agency in space – such place includes both the physical ‘real’ conception of urban space and the human ‘imaginary’ construct of consciousness of place. The actions of “mass consumption is among the most powerful and pervasive place-building processes in the world” (Sack, 1988), place it is the expression of cultural symbolism.

Fast food seems universally present across postmodern urban sociocultural landscapes. McDonalds has shaped a distinctive landscape designed to sell its products and “condition an emotional and behavioral response from those whom they see as their malleable customers” (Goss, 1993). Such a landscape is the resultant of the power logics of McDonalds and the fast food culture, and the subservience of consumers and local cultures, as elucidated in the previous sections. As Breen (1993) put it, it is not a personal, private act by the consumer, but a very social act wherein symbolic meanings, social codes and relationships are produced and reproduced. What defines such a landscape?

First, such as landscape is inherently postmodern, where the “perceived dependency on products and their claimed utilities wanes – no object has greater inherent value independent of the symbolic, and the illusionary separations between the real and the simulation dissolve” (Firat, 1995). As argued in section 1, the material utility of McDonalds is irreplaceable; rather, it thrives on the postmodern consumption of images and constituted identity. In many ways (e.g. through the long-standing “happy meal”) McDonalds’ has postured its selling point to be this identity and symbolism, not merely the product itself.

Ritzer (2003) would interpret the ubiquitous distribution of McDonalds (in fast food and in other McDonaldized institutions) as a “fantasy archipelago of consumption islands”, “isolated worlds of enchantment”, to which “there is a kind of magnetism”. Indeed this is best manifested by the 2003 thinly-veiled McDonalds tagline: I’m lovin’ it, where “it” unabashedly refers to the McDonalds lifestyle and culture, not the product per se. At the same time, Ritzer (2003) argues that McDonaldized islands are dead, in that they lead to a dull, boring, and routine form of existence, separated and alienated from the rest of society. Hence his description of the social geography of McDonalds as ‘Islands of the living dead” (2003).

Such imagery hints at the distribution of McDonalds on our postmodern sociocultural landscape, but beneath it lies severe flaws. First, Ritzer did not reconcile the obvious contradiction between McDonaldized islands simultaneously being both of two extremes: living and dead. If these were a thesis-antithesis pair, a synthesis is lacking. Furthermore, Ritzer portrays fast food as islands isolated from the rest of society, neither as part of larger currents in society, nor having any Marxist influence they have on it.

I would see the ubiquitous McDonalds islands of attraction in our sociocultural urbanscape as plums in a pudding – randomly located in the pudding’s deep-seated structural uniformity, embodying the quintessence of the constituted identity of postmodern consumer culture, and at the same time representing the concentration of hegemonic power over consumers and cultures through which such identity and symbolism are carved, yet part of a greater whole and never divorced from the rest of society. This is how I would plot Mcdonalds on the larger sociocultural landscape – Marxist plums in a postmodern pudding.

4. POSSIBLE RECOURSES (INCL. CRITIQUE OF APPROACH)

The critical analysis in this paper may seem to lack rigor, schematic methodology, and hence cannot give any conclusive proof. Postcolonialism operates on many assumptions (that colonial masters treat colonies and shape their society in a particular way, and such influence is long-lasting) that may not be justified. Postmodernism, where anything can be correct, can cut dangerously close to being truistic (e.g. “Mcdonalds creates meaning”).

But such is the nature of anti-positivist discourse. Postmodernism itself acknowledges versions of the truth, none of which is more correct than the other, such that it is futile to prove one as a positivist singular truth. Critique analyzes phenomena’s and illuminates the human condition, offers perspectives and creates constructive discourse. Hence critical analysis serves as a means of self-reflection and the “conscience of society” (Unwin, 1992).

The above discourse on Marxist power dynamics may border on being overly static and deterministic. Structuration (after: Giddens, 1981:27-30) offers an optimistic counterthesis: like Marxism, it accepts power logics as an inevitable fact of life, but argues that the fate of agents is not just the deterministic product of ain imposed structure, but that of a 2-way dialectic in which actors can effect change to the structure. Hence structuration would give greater credit to the agency and power of the consumer, without the violent radicalism of Marx.

Indeed the consumer has several possible recourses to retrieve the commodifed identities and sociocultural space shaped by McDonalds from calculated control: to “expose the fetishism of the commodity and the re-problematization of the relations of consumption” (Goss, 1993). We have seen this in consumer activism, Supersize Me and class action lawsuits being the most seminal examples. Given sufficient momentum, the collective action by a group of actors will force the profit logics of fast food giants to make progressive changes (e.g. McDonalds already publishes nutritional infon and offers salads), brought about by the notion of corporate social responsibility (staying credible to stay profitable).

I therefore conclude that consumers and cultures are subservient but not powerless in the face of the commodifed fast food culture.

Flower macro

2008-05-22T01:43:00.001+08:00

Artist's statement for visitor's lounge:

The quintessence of the flower macro is peace. It is a subtractive process, about choosing to ignore the superfluous distractions of the world, and focus on nature's intricate beauty. It is a moment in time - the moment in which the flower is in its full glory. It is escapist and idealistic - the search for an island of beautiful tranquility in a sea of ugly chaos. In a world where truth is relative, and the truth that prevails at a particular time is a function of power, the flower macro carries absolute, refreshing, inalienable meaning.

Depressing pics

2008-05-10T23:09:00.001+08:00

someone sent these to me:

some pictures :-)

2008-04-28T00:29:00.003+08:00

Debate exco 08.. see we are fun pple

Something i hope does not come out tmr....

EDIT: ok what transpired during the chem CCT was worse. PQRS ><

Go west / pet shop boys

2008-04-13T12:13:00.002+08:00

Context: Critique of communism ("go west" from Russia?). Note space-time construct.

Come to jesus / Chris Rice

2008-03-30T11:24:00.000+08:00

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

Scarcity in abundance: The parable of the water tank

2008-03-21T16:12:00.002+08:00

The parable of the water tank / Edward Bellamy

There was a certain very dry land, the people whereof were in sore need of water. And they did nothing but seek after water from morning until night, and many perished because they could not find it.

Howbeit, there were certain men in that land who were more crafty and diligent than the rest, and these had gathered stores of water where others could find none, and these men were called capitalists. And it came to pass that the people of the land came unto the capitalists and prayed them that they would give them of the water they had gathered that they might drink, for their need was sore. But the capitalists answered them and said:

"Go to, ye silly people! Why should we give you of the water we have gathered, for then should we become as ye are, and perish with you. But behold what we will do unto you. Be ye our servants, and ye shall have water."

And the people said, "Only give us to drink, and we will be your servants, we and our children." And it was so.

Now, the capitalists were men of understanding, and wise in their generation. They ordered the people who were their servants in bands, with captains and officers, and some they put at the springs to dip, and others did they make to carry the water, and others did they cause to seek for new springs. And all the water was brought together in one place, and there did the capitalists make a great tank for to hold it, and the tank was called the Market, for it was there that the people, even the servants of the capitalists, came to get water. And the capitalists said unto the people:

"For every bucket of water that ye bring to us, that we may pour it into the tank, which is the Market, behold we will give you a penny; but for every bucket that we shall draw forth to give unto you that you may drink of it, ye and your wives and your children, ye shall give to us two pennies, and the difference shall be our profit, seeing that if it were not for this profit we would not do this thing for you, but ye should all perish."

And it was good in the people's eyes for they were dull of understanding, and they diligently brought water unto the tank for many days, and for every bucket which they did bring, the capitalists gave them every man a penny; but for every bucket that the capitalists drew forth from the tank to give again unto the people, behold, the people rendered to the capitalists two pennies.

And after many days the water-tank, which was the Market, overflowed at the top, seeing that for every bucket the people poured in they received only so much as would buy again half-a-bucket. And because of the excess that was left to every bucket, did the tank overflow, for the people were many, but the capitalists were few, and could drink no more than others. Therefore did the tank overflow.

And when the capitalists saw that the water overflowed, they said to the people "See ye not the tank, which is the Market, doth overflow? Sit ye down, therefore, and be patient, for ye shall bring us no more water till the tank be empty."

But when the people no more received the pennies of the capitalists for the water they brought, they could buy no more water from the capitalists, having naught wherewith to buy. And when the capitalist saw that they had no more profit because no man bought water of them, they were troubled. And they sent forth men into the highways, the byways, and the hedges, crying, "If any thirst let him come to the tank and buy water of us, for it doth overflow." For they said among themselves, "Behold, the times are dull; we must advertise."

But the people answered, saying, "How can we buy unless ye hire us, for how else shall we have wherewithal to buy? Hire ye us, therefore, as before, and we will gladly buy water, for we thirst, and ye will have no need to advertise." But the capitalists said to the people: "Shall we hire you to bring water when the tank, which is the Market, doth already overflow? Buy ye, therefore, first water, and when the tank is empty through your buying, we will hire you again."

And so it was because the capitalists hired them no more to bring water that the people could not buy the water they had brought already, and because the people could not buy the water they had brought already, the capitalists no more hired them to bring water.

And the saying went abroad, "It is a crisis."

And the thirst of the people was great, for it was not now as it had been in the days of their fathers, when the land was open before them for everyone to seek water for himself, seeing that the capitalists had taken all the springs, and the wells, and the water-wheels, and the vessels, and the buckets, so that no man might come by water save from the tank, which was the Market. And the people murmured against the capitalists and said: "Behold, the tank runneth over, and we die of thirst. Give us therefore of the water, that we perish not."

But the capitalists answered, "Not so. The water is ours. Ye shall not drink thereof unless ye buy it of us with pennies." And they confirmed it with an oath, saying, after their manner, "Business is business."

But the capitalists were disquieted that the people bought no more water, whereby they had no more profits, and they spake to one another saying, "It seemeth that our profits have stopped our profits, and by reason of the profits we have made we can make no more profits. How is it that our profits are become unprofitable to us, and our gains do make us poor? Let us therefore send for the soothsayers, that they may interpret this thing unto us." And they sent for them.

Now the soothsayers were men learned in dark sayings, who joined themselves to the capitalists by reason of the water of the capitalists, that they might have thereof and live, they and their children. And they spake for the capitalists unto the people, and did their embassies for them, seeing that the capitalists were not a folk quick of understanding, neither ready of speech.

And the capitalists demanded of the soothsayers that they should interpret this thing unto them, wherefore it was that the people bought no more water of them, although the tank was full. And certain of the soothsayers answered and said, "It is by reason of overproduction." And some said, "It is glut." But the signification of the two words is the same. And others said, "Nay, but this thing is by reason of of the spots on the sun." And yet others answered, saying, "It is neither by reason of glut, nor yet of spots on the sun, that the evil hath come to pass, but because of lack of confidence."

And while the soothsayers contended among themselves according to their manner, the men of profit did slumber and sleep, and when they awoke they said to the soothsayers, "It is enough. Ye have spoken comfortably unto us. Now go forth and speak comfortably unto the people, so that they be at rest and leave us also in peace."

But the soothsayers, even the men of the dismal science - for so they were named by some - were loath to go forth to the people lest they should be stoned, for the people loved them not. And they said to the capitalists:

"Masters, it is a mystery of our craft that if men be full and thirst not, but be at rest, then shall they find comfort in our speech, even as ye. Yet if they thirst and be empty, find they no comfort therein, but rather mock at us, for it seemeth that unless a man be full, our wisdom appeareth unto him but emptiness."

But the capitalists said, "Go ye forth. Are ye not our men to do our embassies?"

And the soothsayers went forth to the people and expounded to them the mystery of over production, and how it was that they needs must perish of thirst because there was overmuch water, and how there could not be enough because there was too much. And likewise spoke they unto the people concerning the sun-spots, and also wherefore it was that these things had come upon them them by reason of lack of confidence. And it was even as the soothsayers had said, for to the people their wisdom seemed emptiness. And the people reviled them saying, "Go up, ye bald-heads! Will ye mock us? Doth plenty breed famine? Doth nothing come out of much?" And they took up stones to stone them.

And when the capitalists saw that the people still murmured, and would not give ear to the soothsayers, and because also they feared lest they should come upon the tank and take of the water by force, they brought forth to them certain holy men (but they were false priests), who spake unto the people that they should be quiet and trouble not the capitalists because they thirsted. And these holy men, who were false priests, testified to the people that this affliction was sent to them of God for the healing of their souls, and if they should bear it in patience and lust not after the water, neither trouble the capitalists, it would come to pass that after they had given up the ghost they would come to a country where there should be no capitalists, but an abundance of water. Howbeit, there were certain true prophets of God also, and would not prophesy for the capitalists, but rather spake constantly against them.

Now, when the capitalists saw that the people still murmured and would not be still, neither for the words of the soothsayers nor of the false priests, they came forth themselves unto them, and put the ends of their fingers in the water that overflowed in the tank and wet the tips thereof, and they scattered the drops from the tips of their fingers abroad upon the people who thronged the tank, and the name of the drops of water was charity, and they were exceeding bitter.

And when the capitalists saw yet again that neither for the words of the soothsayers, nor of the holy men who were false priests, nor yet for the drops that were called charity, would the people be still, but raged the more, and crowded upon the tank as if they would take it by force, then they took council together and sent men privily forth among the people and all who had skill in war, and took them apart and spake craftily with them saying:

"Come, now, why cast ye not your lot in with the capitalists? If ye will be their men and serve them against the people, that they break not in upon the tank, then shall ye have abundance of water, that ye perish not, ye and your children."

And the mighty men and they who were skilled in war hearkened unto this speech, and suffered themselves to be persuaded, for their thirst constrained them, and they went within unto the capitalists, and became their men, and staves and swords were put into their hands, and they became a defense unto the capitalists, and smote the people when they thronged upon the tank.

And after many days the water was low in the tank, for the capitalists did make fountains and fishponds of the water thereof, and did bathe therein, they and their wives and their children, and did waste the water for their pleasure.

And when the capitalists saw that the tank was empty, they said, "The crisis is ended": and they sent forth and hired the people that they should bring water and fill it again. And for the water that the people brought to the tank they received for every bucket a penny, but for the water which the capitalists drew forth from the tank to give again to the people they received two pennies, that they might have their profit. And after a time did the tank again overflow even as before.

And now, when many times the people had filled the tank until it overflowed, and had thirsted till the water therein had been wasted by the capitalists, it came to pass that their arose in the land certain men who were called agitators for that they did stir up the people. And they spake unto the people, saying that they should associate, and then they would have no need to be servants of the capitalists, and should thirst no more for water. And in the eyes of the capitalists were the agitators pestilent fellows, and they would fain have crucified them, but durst not for fear of the people.

And the words of the agitators which they spake to the people were on this wise:

"Ye foolish people, how long will ye deceived by a lie, and believe to your hurt that which is not? For behold, all these things which have been said unto you, by the capitalists and the soothsayers are cunningly devised fables. And likewise the holy men, who say that it is the will of God that you should always be poor and miserable and athirst, behold, they do blaspheme God and are liars, whom He will bitterly judge, though He forgive all others. How cometh it that ye may not come by the water in the tank? Is it not because you have no money? And why have ye no money? Is it not because ye receive but one penny for every bucket that ye bring to the tank, which is the Market, but must render two pennies for every bucket ye take out, so that the capitalists may have their profit? See ye not how by this means the tank must overflow, being filled by that ye lack and made to abound out of your emptiness? See ye not also that the harder ye toil and the more diligently ye seek and bring the water, the worse and not the better it shall be for you by reason of the profit, and that forever?"

After this manner spake the agitators for many days unto the people and none heeded them, but it was so that after a time the people hearkened. And they answered and said unto the agitators:

"Ye say truth. It is because of the capitalists and of their profits we may by no means come by the fruits of our labour, so that our labour is in vain, and the more we toil to fill the tank the sooner doth it overflow, and we may receive nothing because there is too much, according to the words of the soothsayers. But behold the capitalists are hard men, and their tender mercies are cruel. Tell us if ye know any way whereby we may deliver ourselves out of our bondage unto them. But if you know of no certain way of deliverance, we beseech you to hold your peace, and let us alone, that we may forget our misery."

And the agitators answered and said "We know a way."

And the people said: "Deceive us not, for this thing hath been from the beginning, and none hath found a way of deliverance till now, though many have sought it carefully with tears. But if ye know a way, speak unto us quickly."

Then the agitators spake unto the people of the way. And they said:

"Behold, what need have ye at all of these capitalists, that you should yield them profits upon your labor? What great things do they wherefore ye render them this tribute? Lo! it is only because they do order you in bands and lead you out and in and set you tasks, and afterwards give you a little of the water yourselves have brought and not they. Now, behold the way out of this bondage! Do ye for yourselves that which is done by the capitalists - namely, the ordering of your labor and the marshaling of your bands, and the dividing of your tasks. So shall ye have no need at all of the capitalists, and no more yield them any profit, but all the fruit of your labor shall ye share as brethren, everyone having the same; and so shall the tank never overflow until every man is full, and would not wag the tongue for more, and afterwards shall ye with the overflow make pleasant fountains and fishponds to delight yourselves withal, even as did the capitalists: but these shall be for the delight of all."

And the people answered: "How shall we go about to do this thing, for it seemeth good to us?" And the agitators answered:

"Choose ye discreet men to go in and out before you and marshal your bands and order your labor, and these men shall be as capitalists were; but behold they shall not be your masters as the capitalists are, but your brethren and officers who will do your will, and they shall not take any profits, but every man his share like the others, and there may be no more masters and servants among you, but brethren only. And from time to time, as ye see fit, ye shall choose other discreet men in place of the first to order the labour."

And the people hearkened, and said the thing was very good to them. Likewise it seemed not a hard thing. And with one voice they cried out, "So let it be as ye have said, for we will do it!"

And the capitalists heard the noise of shouting, and what the people said, and the soothsayers heard it also, and likewise the false priests and the mighty men of war, who were a defense unto the capitalists; and when they heard they trembled exceedingly, so that their knees smote together, and they said one to another, "It is the end of us!"

Howbeit, there were certain true priests of the living God who would not prophesy for the capitalists, but had compassion on the people; and when they heard the shouting of the people and what they said, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and gave thanks to God because of the deliverance.

And the people went and did all the things that were told them of the agitators to do. And it came to pass as the agitators had said, even according to all their words. And there was no more any thirst in that land, neither any that was a-hungered, not naked, nor cold, nor in any manner of want; and every man man said unto his fellow, "My brother," and every woman said unto her companion, "My sister," for so were they with one another as brethren and sisters which do dwell together in unity. And the blessing of God rested upon that land for ever.

River systems!

2008-03-17T23:24:00.002+08:00

Identify positivist, hermaneutic, and critical analysis!

Mad World

2008-03-10T01:16:00.000+08:00

The Minature Earth

Mad World - Gary Jules

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Mad world
[Mad World lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Mad World
Enlarging your world
Mad World.

Panoramas!

2008-03-06T23:07:00.001+08:00

Koped from Wikimedia :-)

This better not come out for TA/CCT/EOY

2008-03-01T21:09:00.002+08:00

Prove...

If this comes out for TA/CCT/EOY it's GGXXED
Thanks HY for the solution!

Busy?

2008-02-29T21:45:00.000+08:00

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said,

'We can't keep Christians from going to church.'

'We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.'

'We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with
their saviour.'

'Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.'

'So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish
dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a
relationship with Jesus Christ..'

'This is what I want you to do,' said the devil:

'Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that
vital connection throughout their day!'

'How shall we do this?' his demons shouted.

'Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable
schemes to occupy their minds,' he answered.

'Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow.'

'Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to
work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their
empty lifestyles.'

'Keep them from spending time with their children.'

'As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape
from the pressures of work!'

'Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice.'

'Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they
drive.' To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in
their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world
plays non-biblical music constantly.'

'This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.'

'Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.'

'Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day.'

'Invade their driving moments with billboards.'

'Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,
sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering
free products, services and false hopes..'

'Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their
husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and
they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. '

'Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night.'

'Give them headaches too! '

'If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin
to look elsewhere.'

'That will fragment their families quickly!'

'Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children
the real meaning of Christmas.'

'Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection
and power over sin and death.'

'Even in their recreation, let them be excessive.'

'Have them return from their recreation exhausted.'

'Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation.
Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and
movies instead.'

'Keep them busy, busy, busy!'

'And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip
and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences.'

'Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek
power from Jesus.'

'Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their
health and family for the good of the cause.'

'It will work!'

'It will work!'

It was quite a plan!

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians
everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there.

Having little time for their God or their families.

Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes?

You be the judge!!!!!

Does 'BUSY' mean: B-eing U-nder
S-atan's Y-oke?

fwd from conan - thanks!

The place for debate

2008-02-17T02:21:00.000+08:00

To the debaters:

Extrapolate typical debate motions... you'll see how the ultimate purpose of debate is a very noble political one: it is about ensuring the welfare of a society. Why debate about writing off third world debt, or fighting AIDS, or fighting unfair trade? Because these issues affect people! Every debate is grounded in a real world issue.

The root of debate is political discourse (hence the terms "parlimentary debate", "government", "opposition") - the exchange of theses ("substantives/policies") and antitheses ("rebuttals/countersubstantives"), with which a synthesis is developed (read up on eg "hegel dialectic" or even locke's democracy). Through this process, social issues are discussed, policies are refined, and the opinions of society are duly considered - such that the outcome is the best possible.

Debate is not merely about "armchair debating", distanced from the real issues out there. If you are only willing to debate from an armchair for the sake of winning trophies, then don't even bother. You have a role, and a stake in the larger society. You must have a heart, with which you debate and advocate for the betterment of society - whatever the size of this society. Undoubtedly in a competition you have to argue the side you are allocated - but take your own personal stand, armed with the skills to evaluate all the actors and incentives and arguments for a particular issue.

Do not underestimate the power of debate. Ultimately, remember that you are the ones best armed with the power of argument, with which you can change society for the better - or for the worse (just look at Hitler: he was such a great orator). Great power cannot be divorced from great responsibility - do not derelict this duty you have as a fine debater to society, and be willing to stand up for what you believe in.

Posters :-)

2008-02-07T02:48:00.000+08:00

Photo club

Debate

Science Club

Intriguing points from a discussion of Plato's Republic

2008-01-27T01:12:00.000+08:00

click for (source)

Plato - Allegory of the cave - on knowledge and truth

Plato says that we are all like prisoners chained up on the floor of a cave. We are so restricted that we can only look in one direction, and there we see shadows on the wall that seem to talk and move around. We and our fellow prisoners observe, discuss, and remember what these shadows do or say. But, what happens if we happen to be released from our chains? We stand up and look around, and we see a fire burning at the back of the cave. In front of the fire is a low wall, and on the wall puppets are manipulated, which cast the shadows that are all we have ever seen. So suddenly we realize that all the things we have ever known all our lives were not the true reality at all, but just shadows [skiai -- significantly the same word that occurs at the end of the Meno, when Plato says that the statesman who can teach his virtue and make another into a statesman will be like the only true reality compared with shadows (100a)]. But there is more. There is an exit from the cave, which leads up to the surface. There we are at first blinded, but then begin to see trees, animals, etc. which in the cave were only represented by puppets. Eventually we notice that all those things exist and are knowable because of the sun. Returning to the cave, we would at first be blinded by the darkness, and our fellow prisoners would have no idea what we were doing or saying -- they would probably regard us as insane -- but we could not, of course, take them seriously for an instant.

On the good

Plato's actual argument for why we should be just suffers from a fundamental misconception. He is always recommending justice from prudential considerations, i.e. we should be just because of our own best interest, either to be happy (the main argument) or to avoid the punishment of the gods (in the Myth of Er). If there is a difference between moral and merely prudent action, however, Plato has misdirected us. Instead, morality may require actions that are not in our self-interest. This is agreed upon by Immanuel Kant, Confucius, and even the Bhagavad Gita. Thus, Confucius holds that righteouness, , is to do what is right, regardless of the consequences. That is how Kant defined the "categorical imperative," the moral command (the imperative) that is to no ulterior purpose (i.e. it is categorical).

Pics from perth & thailand

2008-01-20T23:34:00.001+08:00

Orientation video for JRIC

2008-01-10T23:56:00.001+08:00

"Karoshi" (death by overwork)

2007-12-31T11:08:00.000+08:00

Doesn't this sound so familiar?

wee hours of the morning...everything's eerie outside..... chiong work due tomorrow... cups and cups and cups of coffe... fight to open your eyes... force your tired fingers to keep typing and your brain to keep cranking... your head starts to feel like it's floating around in the clouds after a while but you contiinue... knowing you are ggxxed if u give up...then at 5.30am... YES finally finish... pack your bag, go into your room, collapse on the bed for a minute and get up... into the toilet.. into the car.. and back in school...

"Jobs for life: Japanese are working themselves to death" - The Economist 19/12

HARA-KIRI is a uniquely Japanese form of suicide. Its corporate equivalent is karoshi, “death by overwork”. Since this was legally recognised as a cause of death in the 1980s, the number of cases submitted to the government for the designation has soared; so has the number of court cases that result when the government refuses an application. In 1988 only about 4% of applications were successful. By 2005 that share had risen to 40%. If a death is judged karoshi, surviving family members may receive compensation of around $20,000 a year from the government and sometimes up to $1m from the company in damages. For deaths not designated karoshi the family gets next to nothing.

Now a recent court ruling has put companies under pressure to change their ways. On November 30th the Nagoya District Court accepted Hiroko Uchino's claim that her husband, Kenichi, a third-generation Toyota employee, was a victim of karoshi when he died in 2002 at the age of 30. He collapsed at 4am at work, having put in more than 80 hours of overtime each month for six months before his death. “The moment when I am happiest is when I can sleep,” Mr Uchino told his wife the week of his death. He left two children, aged one and three.

As a manager of quality control, Mr Uchino was constantly training workers, attending meetings and writing reports when not on the production line. Toyota treated almost all that time as voluntary and unpaid. So did the Toyota Labour Standards Inspection Office, part of the labour ministry. But the court ruled that the long hours were an integral part of his job. On December 14th the government decided not to appeal against the verdict.

The ruling is important because it may increase the pressure on companies to treat “free overtime” (work that an employee is obliged to perform but not paid for) as paid work. That would send shockwaves through corporate Japan, where long, long hours are the norm.

Official figures say that the Japanese work about 1,780 hours a year, slightly less than Americans (1,800 hours a year), though more than Germans (1,440). But the statistics are misleading because they do not count “free overtime”. Other tallies show that one in three men aged 30 to 40 works over 60 hours a week. Half say they get no overtime. Factory workers arrive early and stay late, without pay. Training at weekends may be uncompensated.

During the past 20 years of economic doldrums, many companies have replaced full-time workers with part-time ones. Regular staff who remain benefit from lifetime employment but feel obliged to work extra hours lest their positions be made temporary. Cultural factors reinforce these trends. Hard work is respected as the cornerstone of Japan's post-war economic miracle. The value of self-sacrifice puts the benefit of the group above that of the individual.

Toyota, which is challenging GM as the world's largest carmaker, is often praised for the efficiency and flexibility of its workforce. Ms Uchino has a different view. “It is because so many people work free overtime that Toyota reaps profits,” she says. “I hope some of those profits can be brought back to help the employees and their families. That would make Toyota a true global leader.” The company is promising to prevent karoshi in future.

VJ final video

2007-12-30T12:17:00.000+08:00

This house believes that Asean should intervene in Myanmar.

RI (prop) vs HCI (opp)
RI 5 - HCI 2.

Have a blessed xmas :-)

2007-12-23T19:14:00.000+08:00

As little children
We would dream of Christmas morn
Of all the gifts and toys
We knew we'd find

But we never realized
A baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

*We were the reason
That He gave His life
We were the reason
That He suffered and died
To a world that was lost
He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live

As the years went by
We learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves
And what that means
On a dark and cloudy day
A man hung crying in the rain
All because of love, all because of love (*)

I've finally found the reason for living
It's in giving every part of my heart to Him
In all that I do every word that I say
I'll be giving my all just for Him, for Him (*)

He is my reason to live

He still came

No palace, no jewels,
no kingdom to rule,
no crown of majesty.
No throne and no robe,
no silver, no gold,
no courts of royalty.

Yet the King of kings left heaven to become a lowly man.
He left all heaven's glory to fulfill His Father's plan.
No family, no friends to help at the end, no out, no substitute.
Much pain and much hurt to give love and worth, He bore our sins and grief.
Yet the hope of what He offered so out weighed what must be done.
He chose to be my victor and assured my pardon won.

He still came, just for me He still came.
Knowing all He would endure, He still came.
Disregarding ev'ry cost, from the manger to the cross.
He still came just for me, He still came.

IJSO 2007

2007-12-14T18:59:00.000+08:00

Yay gold =). Country 2nd, total medal tally 4 gold 2 silver + 2nd team for prac (barry, vincent, daryl). Full results available here

A big thank you to...

1. All teachers & trainers who have taken time off during the most busy periods of the year to train us (especially an overworked mr wee who coordinated the trainings, and conducted all the physics trainings (since he is both the science club & RA teacher for physics)

2. Ms Lim and Ms Wong from MOE (together with other NUS high and RGS teachers) who helped to arrange external trainings, briefings etc,

3. Everyone (including Mrs Lai and Mr Yuen) who encouraged us

4. All our friends for being so supportive,especially daniel lim, jian yang, and jie liang (i hope i haven't missed out anyone...) who received us at the airport on 11dec.

5.Mrs Yap and the library for making lots of resources available.

A great trip

Actually it was quite slack on the whole. 1 day test, 1 day tour... could sleep early and soak in the bath for 30min every day, and yet still manage to study, play cards and mahjong. Huiyao's blog has a relatively comprehensive account, but I shall be lazy and just mention the most juicy snippets.

Taiwan side was really quite serious about organising it (to quote someone, probably because they get to publicize themselves as "taiwan" instead of "taiwan R.O.C." haha). Whatever the motivation, i must say that it's impressive.

We were given some of the better rooms in the grand hotel (one of the best there). I got a huge room (2 double beds and lots of space to spare!) with a huge balcony and great views of the whole taipei city. Frills included: japanese style toilets (the UK people flooded their toilet because they switch on the wash function and didn't know how to stop it), leather room slippers, plasma tv etc. They also made specially-printed MRT cards, and during peak hour the police even helped us to clear traffic.

From a geographic perspective (ahaha geog is a disease that becomes an inseparable part of you once you are infected)... taiwan suffers from huge sprawl, largely due to laissez-faire central planning (if any). Looking down from taipei 101, it is interesting how the city has evolved to fill every valley of flat land in somewhat mountainous terrain. This is ugly in more than 1 way: firstly the horrendous 6-story high multi-tier elevated highways (bringing noise and darkness to the streets and buildings beside it) that alleviate the inevitable congestion, and secondly in the decaying buildings and dirty sidewalks - sometimes right next to shiny office blocks - that clutter the city.

And yet beauty lies therein. One is a sense of charm that is hidden in the crudeness of some areas of the city, and can only exist when the urban scape is built up in a purely spontaneous way and is not sanitized. Such a cityscape, coupled with textural details of culture (in the forms of symbols and often loads of good food), often embedded with many stories, dreams, and hopes that reveal themselves if only you look hard enough, provides a distinct and unmistakable sense of place. Some of the places i enjoyed the best, including Danshui, Shilin, and Taipei main station reflected this.

Yeliu and Yangmingshan are also wonderful. Yeliu is actually an headland outcrop between two bays, being eroded in from both sides. Mushroom rocks, shore platforms, arches, caves and other textbook examples abound - there is even clear evidence for sea level change (isostatic or eustatic?). As for yangmingshan, haha i collected some volcanic rocks from boiling pools of water near sulphur vents =). Not everyone is orange enough to experience an earthquake from the top of taipei 101 though...

It is after all Taiwan, so some politics is to be expected. Chen shui bian came to give a speech (with 20 bodyguards! and probably doctors on standby in case he gets "grazed" by another rogue bullet), and i seem to have heard soft hisses of "ah bian xia tai" (or maybe it's just my imagination). Protests went on while we were there (as they always do... it's taiwan), but we conveniently happened not to pass by. As i predicted there were people giving out political leaflets around taipei main station, and huge posters ranging from "China communists stop persecuting Falun Gong!" to "Taiwan for UN - Peace forever" (sense the irony... how will taiwan's attempt to join UN under its own name create peace forever? it won't even build peace in the present moment!)

And not to forget the people! Haha nice memories, especially our friendly student guide, and Mr Yeah, and that of playing mahjong. Talked to teams from other countries too and someone almost traded a red blazer for 5 pounds haha.

Leaving for thailand at 4am tomorrow... pictures of all 3 trips another time! Oh yah haven't said much about perth... another lovely trip, except for The Flies, especially when they get trapped because the Door is closed. Really, great company can change so much! Ok ok i shall let the pictures do the talking

A little quiz

2007-11-18T17:16:00.000+08:00

I'll be away until 11 dec, hopefully coming back with good news, but here's a little quiz. Click here Will post answers and explanations when i get back

Be warned... it's not easy :-) Draws on sciences, current affairs / politics / economics, philo, geog, and some humour. Where there is no logical answer, answer as I would. Haha all the best, i don't expect anyone to pass!

Scoreboard

Acronym-ase

2007-11-15T22:01:00.000+08:00

Ok taking a break from IJSO prep... decipher these bio acronyms!

ACTH ADH ANF CAM CNS cGMP cDNA ECM GABA Hfr IgM MHC p53 PDE PEP Pfr PNS PTH RAAS REM RuBP

Quotable quotes #2

2007-11-08T00:34:00.000+08:00

One day... on the H2 Chem debrief thread on sgforums... (notice especially the last line)

A: Quite hard man..... Cambridge really transform into something new liao

B: r u talking bout the 3 carbonyl compounds? any idea what are those 3?
i got propanone, propanal, methanal but then i cant distinguish between methanal and propanal Crying or Very sad so i guess theyre wrong? also whats the type of reaction when amide becomes N- Na+??

C: the 3 correct ones should be methanal, ethanal and propanone. to distinguish propanone, just use Tollens' as it won't give silver mirror. then between methanal and ethanal, add aqueous alkali iodine. ethanal will give yellow ppt while methanal won't. When amide becomes N- Na+, it is an acid-base/neutralisation reaction (your sodium salt).

B: My friend say....its not ethanal.....its ethanoic acid...... and ethanoic acid has a carbonyl group as well....he gave a lot of explanation and I still don't understand at all....=/

C: Calcium methanoate gives methanal on heating, whereas the calcium salts of other carboxylic acids give ketones. If calcium methanoate is heated with the calcium salt of another carboxylic acid, the products will be mixed eg calcium methanoate plus calcium ethanoate will give methanal, propanone, and also ethanal.

B: how are we supposed to know this? its nowhere in the syllabus i can think of...
cambridge is really trying to kill us...

C: I guess they want us to learn the art of deduction. My comment: isn't it quite obvious that the products will be mixed? If A produces B, and X produces Y, then A and X will produce B and Y assuming A&X and B&Y don't interact

A: C which jc u from??u seem so lihai..ahhh think the time restrain of the paper make it tough :-(

C: which other jc will the chem dept force-feed and drill chem stuffs into your until you resemble nothing more than battery farm animals stuffed with chemical additives ready to be sent to the slaughterhouse known as A levels chemistry? of course it's rjc.

Brainless humour

2007-11-03T18:02:00.000+08:00

Btw SBS is getting some new Scania buses to replace outgoing Merc O405 buses. I want them on no. 5 and no. 24 XD

A song and a QA

2007-10-26T17:41:00.000+08:00

1 Cool song

Aqua harp

1 QA

Given the following unknowns, identify each one, without using any other reagents or apparatus (other than test tubes). Rather interesting... but i got stuck after running out of ammonia [suans self :-(]

HCl | H2SO4 | CH3COOH | NaOH | NH3 | Pb(NO3)2 | KI | Na2CO3 | AgNO3 | Zn(NO3)2

Identify by smell
NH3
CH3COOH: vinegar smell

Identify by touch
NaOH: slippery

Mix NH3 with each sample
Pb(NO3)2: white ppt, insoluble in excess
AgNO3: light brown ppt
Zn(NO3)2: white ppt, soluble in excess

Mix Pb(NO3)2 with each unknown sample
KI: yellow ppt of PbI2

Test last 3 individually with each other
Na2CO3: Effervescence (CO2) with 2 other soln

Test last 2 remaining with AgNO3
HCl: White ppt (AgCl)
H2SO4: No rxn

The confluence of muggers

2007-10-14T11:16:00.000+08:00

2 photos: (1) free period in class (actually, math relief, but that it is a free period still stands), (2) between chinese and chem CCTs.

Perhaps it is spurred by mutual revision and encouragement, or maybe stress relief (see esp the jokes in the 1st photo)... but whatever the case i didn't expect this.

Well... one day someone drew the Nike tick over a book, with "Just Mug It". This probably sums up everything - and it's going on our class jacket too.

It's eye-opening to be in the class that's the confluence of muggers in RI. Everyone (with a couple of notable exceptions) is a mugger to a relatively large extent. Class averages are the highest in the level for many subjects. Certain teachers spam us with 30% more beyond-syllabus info than other classes, and we hardly give them any problems (except once when a particular relief teacher walked out because we complained about his teaching, which was honestly bad).

Most are self-driven, and many are perfectionistic (obsessive-compulsive, even). Many have heavy CCA portfolios (we have 8 CCALs, the most among the sec 3 classes), and almost everyone is damn hardworking. And at the core most people are really, really nice. Notes fly around before exams, and MSN discussions over the past few days reveal that most seek to fulfill a higher purpose, something that would benefit others. Quite a large proportion are politically quite active with strong views. It's sad though that we have little time to interact.

In this class we don't go "Wah... you are a 4.0 mugger idiot", but instead, "Huh you didn't mug ah...wah how can? You going to GGXX... next time must mug harder hoh." In such an environment there is positive feedback: you become even more mugger. There is competition, but there is little hostility, and most people are quite humble. In many ways this is quite good - everyone gets better.

After exams everyone says "i'm going to die... ggxx" (that usually means "aiyah no more guarantee high 4.0). Some say "i'm going to fail", then get full marks. But actually i think these reveal deep insecurities that sometimes manifest themselves in episodes of emoness too. True it can be stressful e.g. a GPA of 3.5 would top some sec 3 classes, but it's near the bottom here, and since everyone's so perfectionistic and have so many commitments & portfolios we end up quite tired most of the time.

It's maybe a miracle how we all ended up in the same class. Sure, SE and GE were merged, but there is a new segregation: RA (Raffles Academy i.e. taking a subject at an advanced level, for those alien to it), and RA students tend to be grouped together for ease of timetabling. Well, some people's fears about being in a class of slackers are probably alleviated now. Elitism? Maybe, but probably not, in my judgement. Perhaps a lack of respect for slackers though.

So here it is, 3C 07. Renyan says "I wonder what we'll all end up doing in 20 years", and how we plan to fufill our "higher purposes" in 20 more. I do hope that we'll get to know each other even better over the coming year. It's a pity if we don't, because most people here are really nice.

Mug em all

2007-10-09T18:27:00.000+08:00

When you are bored from mugging bio...

Come to jesus

2007-10-03T23:52:00.000+08:00

For all we muggers..."do your best, god will take care of the rest"

Come to Jesus / Chris Rice

March to freedom?

2007-09-27T17:22:00.000+08:00

Sign this petition

March to freedom?

Riot police attack monks

Why protest?

For those who are unfamiliar with the background behind the junta: they organised a election in the early 1990s, in which aung san suu ki won, but refused to recognise this...

Sadly this is not going to be enough. International pressure is necessary before the junta will get out. Sadly, few countries are willing to take the moral high ground (e.g. Singapore, as chair of ASEAN, should do something).

More info from economist.com

In the last pro-democracy protests on this scale, in 1988, it took several rounds of massacres before the demonstrations finally subsided, leaving the regime as strong as ever. By Thursday September 27th, with a crackdown under way, and the first deaths from clashes with security forces, it seemed hard to imagine that things would be very different this time.

Myanmar’s tragic recent history suggests that when an immovable junta meets unstoppable protests, much blood is spilled.

As in the past, the world’s initial response to the junta’s violence was marked by bickering and point-scoring. On September 27th, the United Nations Security Council met in response to pressure from the West for co-ordinated sanctions. But Russia and China argued that the unrest was an internal matter that should not be on the council’s agenda at all.

If any countries can sway the junta they are the regional ones: ASEAN, especially Thailand; India; and above all China. China has given the junta diplomatic support, helping for years to keep its behaviour off the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. But Myanmar is far from a client state.

As in 1988 and 1990 the Burmese people have shown they want to choose their own leaders. In the past they did not fully reckon on the ruthlessness of the people they were up against. One day, as with all tyrannies, Myanmar’s will fall. But much blood may flow before that day dawns.

NSC 2007

2007-09-24T00:23:00.000+08:00

It's been a long journey. Haha... but well, we walked home today with the championship today and laptops in hand.

We were quite shocked to get 2 pts for MCQ... disagreed on the 2 qns we got wrong, then stone/stupid choose wrong. Could have gotten 6, well but the other schs got 2 too... For the 2nd round, it was quite freaky when they whisked us to NTU to meet the environment faculty pple... it was the same pple as the failed NTU-RI, they recognise us. RG got a 2 pt lead here. In the demo round, once we got 12 for demo ahahaha. So we were now 1 point ahead, plus the eureka.

Buzzer round as usual was the most exciting/stressful. The questions were not difficult, but it's a whole new ball game up there vs a no-stakes situation. Plus RG's reaction time very pro, it was down to speed for some of the easy questions. There was a point where i thought RG was going to win... but we caught up in the end.

Pic frm barry... will replace with a pic the journalist is supposed to send me

A big thank you to all those who have helped us... Mr Wee, Mrs Lim, Mrs Yau - for your guidance and encouragement. Science club pple and lab techs - for helping us in the demo, and sparring us. And all supporters. This wouldn't have been possible without u.

And well done to RG and SC too! You gals certainly gave us a tough fight.

To the science club sec 2s... the title has been RI's for 2 years now. It's yours to defend next year.

Arenes, Electrophillic substitution, and directing effects

2007-09-13T21:56:00.000+08:00

For the first time... a chem post! No i'm not mr lumpy
Same thing has been posted on RA chem blog (see my links)

What is an Arene?

The homologous series Arenes are compounds based on the benzene ring C6H6. This ring, and its stability confer distinctive properties to any molecule that contains it.

Arene bonding and structure

Given benzene’s formula, C6H6, one would expect three C=C double bonds and three C-C single bonds. Hence it can exist as either of 2 resonant forms (left and centre in the diagram below), depending on the position of the double bonds.

In actual fact it exists as a mixture of both – each carbon atom uses its 2s and two of its 2p orbitals to form the σ framework of the benzene molecule (bonding to each adjacent C or H atom). The remaining 2p orbitals combine to form delocalised π orbitals, shared equally by each carbon atom (hence each bond is neither a single nor a double bond, but something in between), emphasized by the diagram on the right. Hence all carbon-carbon bond lengths in benzene are the same (0.139nm).

Delocalisation lowers the energy of the structure significantly (this is known as the delocalization enthalpy, about 150 kJ/mol). This electronic configuration and stability has a dominant influence on the properties of benzene.

For instance, even though benzene is unsaturated, it does not decolourise bromine water (the usual test for unsaturation). It does not readily undergo halogenation (common for alkenes) because addition of halides would destroy the delocalised π cloud.

Electrophillic substitution

As you read through this section, pay special attention to the position of electrons, it is the principle concern affecting further substitution reactions.

The most important reaction of arenes is called electrophilic substitution: an atom or group of atoms (called electrophile) replaces a hydrogen atom of the benzene ring (i.e. positively charged ions attack the cloud of π electrons).

Thus:C6H6 + E+ (an electrophile) --> C6H5E + H+

The mechanism of electrophile attack starts with attack by an electrophilic cation (e.g. Cl+ after heterolytic cleavage of Cl2). A Wheland intemediate (extreme right in the figure below) forms, in which the positive charge is shared by the five other carbon atoms in the ring. To stabilise the ring further, the intermediate then loses a proton, hence the net result is not an addition but a substitution.

Activating and deactivating groups

Existing functional groups attached to arene rings have effects on further substitution reactions.

Activating groups make further reactions more likely and faster, while deactivating groups make further reactions less likely and slower. Thus whether C6H5E would react faster or slower with another electrophile (say E’) will depend on whether E is an activating or deactivating group.

The first mechanism holds that activating groups must donate electrons to the arene ring (hence positively-charged electrophiles are now more attracted to the ring, relative to the hydrogen already attached to the ring), and deactivating groups withdraw electrons.

Alternatively, activating groups must stabilise the Wheland intemediate, hence lowering the activation energy and making the reaction more feasible.

Some activating groups

Halogen substituents such as Cl is more electronegative than benzene, hence withdrawing electrons and deactivating the ring.

A hydroxyl group (OH) is strongly activating. Oxygen (like carbon in the ring) has an filled but unbonded p orbital approximately perpendicular to the plane of the ring, hence when an OH group is attached to the benzene ring, the delocalised π electron cloud extends to this oxygen in the OH group.

Inductive effect: when electrophiles (positively charged functional groups) add to the arene molecule via electrophillic substitution, a cation (the wheland intemediate) is first formed (the electrophile attaches before the H breaks off). Usually the positive charge is stabilised by sharing this charge over all the C atoms. When the delocalisation is extended to the O atom, the positive charge can be shared by it as well, hence the positive charge on each atom is lessened, lowering the reaction's activationg energy (hence faster / more probable reaction). Hence we say that the OH group activates the ring.

The same inductive mechanism goes for methyl (CH3) or other alkyl groups, but these are less activating.

Some deactivating groups

Nitro (NO2) groups and ketone (COCH3) groups are deactivating because they withdraw electrons from the ring. The highly electronegative oxygen atom withdraws electrons from the atom substituting for hydrogen (i.e. N or C), such that delocalisation of electrons does not extend onto this atom, and electron density may be withdrawn from the ring.

Nitro groups are more deactivating than ketone groups, because of its 2 oxygen atoms (versus ketone’s 1), and because N is more electronegative than C, hence further withdrawing electron density from the ring

Directing effects

Activating groups are ortho and para directing (position 2, 4, and 6 on the ring), while deactivating groups are meta directing (position 3 and 5 on the ring).

Here's why. An incoming electrophile’s positive charge is concentrated on carbon 2, 4, 6 (where the original functional group is no. 1). If an electron donating group is already present in these positions, it will donate electron density, lessening the positive charge on and stabilizing this wheland intemediate. Hence the wheland intemediate leading to the 1,2 (ortho) and 1,4 (para) isomers have lower energy than the wheland intemediate leading to the 1,3 (meta) isomer, and therefore the ortho and para isomers are likely to form are therefore more likely to form.

Excerpts from Ecclesiastes (NIV)

2007-09-07T15:38:00.001+08:00

My favourite verses:

2:10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

3:16 ... there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.

4:6 Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

4:15 Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labour that he can carry in his hand. 16 ... As a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind? 17 All his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, affliction, and anger.

8:7 Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? 8 No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no-one has power over the day of his death.

8:15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.

9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom

11:5 ... you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. 6 ... sow your seeds in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle.

11:9 Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgement. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles from your body, for youth and vigour are meaningless.

12:13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgement.

Phone cam pic spam #2

2007-09-02T18:20:00.000+08:00

NSC:

Ahem... no wonder barry looks so tall on TV

Jerms.

Voodoo

3C before bio test: mugger's corner

Sunset at raja block

Mr Yuen's teacher's day gift from Geog RA:

In search of the Singaporean soul

2007-08-25T01:57:00.000+08:00

English portfolio blog submission Term 3 / no. 2
Category: social issues

Original articles (both from Today newspaper)

Personal response

We are seldom conscious of it, but embodied by the Singlish we casually utter, each plate of char kuay teow we gulf down, or our kiasu spirit, is the Singaporean soul. It is alive and well, a beating heart shared by the four million disparate individuals on the island – and perhaps even beyond. It is about our common set of values, ideology, preferences, and practices.

Every society, from an entire nation, down to a class of students, has its own soul – be this broken or joyous. I daresay the Singaporean soul, blessed with the peace of mind accompanying peace and prosperity, is a relatively blissful one (for most, probably, but maybe not for those left behind).

The Singaporean soul, too, is marked by pride in the nation. While few Singaporeans will claim to be contented, I believe this pride is why Singaporeans often walk with a smug air of superiority while on holiday overseas, grumbling about how foreign cities pale in comparison to our own. It is also why touching down at Changi Airport never fails to confer an indescribable sense of familiarity, for me at least.

And yet this soul is a shy one, its character and energy masked beneath the hum of economic productivity. With uneventful routines that trap many a workaholic Singaporean into repetitive activity cycles, Loh explains that the Singaporean seldom pauses to reflect on what he is doing, but rather applies himself with zest and energy.

After all, built deep into our DNA is an unmistakable sense of ambition. Some call it greed, but it is this ambition compels us to toil for a better future – just as it has done for our forefathers, making Singapore what it is today. The trade off is that we tend to see things in dollars and cents, failing to appreciate of the finer things in life, hence appearing boring and even workaholic.

Regardless of this, it is these inexpressible passions that transcend the imposing pressure of day-to-day realities, conferring a uniquely Singaporean identity. A city’s vibrancy and character, with which the world may remember it, is a reflection of its soul – mention “New York”, and you are likely to get an awe of familiarity even from those who have never stepped foot into Manhattan.

No soul is static. Just as well that the Singaporean soul is gradually being redefined by new generations of well-educated young adults. While the Singlish, the char kuay teow, and the kiasu-ism are unlikely to fade away, we see a new urge for self-expression (our population has the world’s largest percentage of bloggers), and a new appreciation of arts and culture emerging. Hopefully, the Singaporean identity and the city’s character will be transformed with more energy and character.

What remains constant is that the Singaporean soul will remain beating in all of us. The next time you tear your parking coupons according to the ‘carpark time zone’ (10 minutes ahead of local time), chew on this.

(497 words)

The democratisation of the internet and what this means for today’s youth

2007-08-24T01:42:00.000+08:00

EL portfolio submission T3 / no. 1
Category: issues concerning teenagers

Original article: Time's Person of the Year: You
Lev Grossman, Time Magazine

image from gawker

The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.

To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006. The conflict in Iraq only got bloodier and more entrenched. A vicious skirmish erupted between Israel and Lebanon. A war dragged on in Sudan. A tin-pot dictator in North Korea got the Bomb, and the President of Iran wants to go nuclear too. Meanwhile nobody fixed global warming, and Sony didn't make enough PlayStation3s.

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.

And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.

America loves its solitary geniuses—its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses—but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Sure, it's a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.

But that's what makes all this interesting. Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There's no road map for how an organism that's not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion. But 2006 gave us some ideas. This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It's a chance for people to look at a computer screen and really, genuinely wonder who's out there looking back at them. Go on. Tell us you're not just a little bit curious.

Personal response

We may not realize it, but each time we participate in the online community, be it blogging, or contributing to Wikipedia or Youtube, we are participating in the "democratization of the internet". Today, the power of the internet has indeed truly been given to the people.

It is interesting how bottom-up content-creation by millions or billions of individual users can vastly outdo what a top-down approach is capable of. Take for instance Wikipedia, the de facto first stop for many curious individuals – it surpasses traditional encyclopedias in comprehensiveness.

It is also awfully heartening, as a manifestation of society’s collective spirit that in today’s materialistic world can be painfully lacking. It was the contributions of netizens, pieced together, that enabled sites like Wikipedia or Youtube to flourish, and everyone to benefit.

As an Internet phenomenon the democratization of the internet is unrivaled. The reach and the power it gives to the individual is amazing.

I have firsthand been awed by the power of the Internet through one video, on the science behind nuclear bombs (one performance task), I uploaded onto Google Video. It has netted close to 25 thousand hits – a figure way beyond my wildest imagination when I chose to upload it for the benefit of others.

So what does the Internet’s power mean for today’s youth? First, information, for this generation that embraces technology ever so readily, is literally at their fingertips (perpetually placed on a keyboard). With all its user-generated information (and great resources like Wikipedia), the democratized Internet is, therefore, an oasis for their insatiable curiosity, and together with its interactive and appealing multimedia content, a vastly superior learning tool.

Personal and social space online is free and plentiful. Blogs are perhaps the best exemplar – it is the teen’s online identity, his personal space, from which he can draw pride and self-attainment. Blogs, being public, also function as social space, through which teens get to know others better, especially since blogs are frequently linked to each other, forming a huge network. Finally, online chat extends socialization to the digital world.

The democratization of the Internet, however, is fraught with dangers. This phenomenon has given profit-minded perverts and terrorists alike the chance to create pornographic, violent, or otherwise undesirable sites. The free flow of information from these sites can prove pernicious to the teen’s tender (if stubborn) minds. Social tools like online dating or chat can be exploited, for instance by pedophiles that may take advantage of teens.

The sheer volume of interesting entertainment available on the Internet poses a strong temptation to procrastinate – this applies not just to teens, I believe. I’ve fallen prey to it before, and I know how hard clicking that small X on the top right of your browser can be.

It is with its newfound democratization that the true age of the Internet dawns. Teenagers be wary – but take it with a dose of discipline, and you stand to benefit immensely.

(494 words)

If you can't sleep...

2007-08-12T20:07:00.000+08:00

Question 1

Cylinder contains O2 (heat capacity 21.10J/(mol.K) at pressure of 2.00atm. Vol = 4.00L, T=300K. Assume ideal gas. Given these 4 processes: (1) Heated at cnst pressure from initial state (state 1) to state 2, which has T=450K. (2) Cooled at cnst vol to 250K (state 3). (3) Compressed at constant temp to vol of 4.00L, (4) Heated at constant volume to 300K (back to state 1).

Solve: (a) Show these 4 processes in p-V diagram, giving numerical val of p and V in each of 4 states. (b) Calculate Q and W for each process. (c) Calculate net work. (d) What is the efficiency? How does the efficiency compare to carnot engine operating between same min and max temp of 250K and 450K?

Question 2

Given black bear (assume as sphere 1.5m diameter), bear has 2 layers of insulation: 1 layer of fat 4.0cm thick, thermal conductivity of fat = 0.20 W / (m.K), surrounded by layer of air trapped inside fur. The outer surface layer of the fur is 2.7C during hibernation, while inner surface is 31.0C. What is temp at fat-inner fur boundary, and how thick should the air layer contained within fur be so that the bear loses heat at rate = 50.0W

Song select #2: forgotten favourites

2007-08-09T22:11:00.000+08:00

Take a walk down memory lane... you have probably heard all these before

Irreproducible voices

What a wonderful world - Louis Armstrong

Unforgettable - Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole

Favourite soundtracks

The phantom of the opera.

Theme from the Godfather: Speak Softly Love

Theme from Schindler's list (this one has no singing but is quite touching)

And... the old fav ad: GATSBY!

everybody stand up..
from 8 years old to 80 years old..
lalala..all stand up and be handsome guys..
gatsby..gatsby..gatsby..gatsby..
if you want to be handsome please stand up..
you could use your hair to surprise women
once in a lifetime..how handsome u wanna be you decide..
Hey! Man! be handsome!
**turns to skeleton**
gatsby..gatsby..gatsby..gatsby..

gatsby hair wax..enables you to be xool..

More snippets from RE

2007-08-01T17:31:00.000+08:00

What causes urban mass micromovement flows? 2 factors extracted from RE :-)

Positional Utilites:

With activity specialisation, desires and fulfilment have become separated, as various needs are catered to by different locations. Micromovement is the means of correcting imbalances and inadequacies in desires and fufilment, i.e, when individuals have needs that cannot be met at their origin, they have to travel to a destination that presents the best compromise between fulfilling this need and minimising the distance travelled.

Topological Matrix:

The individual’s topological matrix is about his origin location(s) in respect to the larger urban structure and various positional utilities. The concept of an origin location refers to the location that the individual has to visit on a daily basis, and that which is relatively fixed and hard to change. The site and situation of these origins are obvious foci of the individual’s day-to-day life. In addition to Hurst’s idea of a topological matrix, we also put forth that this origin, while often being the individual’s place of residence, can also be his place of work, or other compulsively frequented places (e.g. a regular pub, a friend’s house etc.), or several of the above, in which case the individual places differing values on each, based on their importance or how easily they can be changed. Observe how origins, when separated by too great a distance, can shift to accommodate multiple origins, e.g. in the case of shifting house to live closer to place of work – which origin shifts, and which one stays, depends on the differing value the individual places on each.

Concepts of space and movement

2007-07-28T19:39:00.000+08:00

Nuggets Extracted from my RE:

There is little doubt that the individual is mobile: he moves about an urban area daily in the course of fulfilling various day-to-day needs and motives (e.g. home to work commuting). As the individual moves about an urban area, he synthesizes stimuli from his observation and experiences of this urban area, allowing him to conceptualise this built environment.

In describing the boundary of this urban area, Eilot Hurst proposes the conception of movement space... action space... *section cut*

The individual’s movement space is one defined by boundaries:

*section cut* (Limitations of transport system, socioeconomic/time abilities, psychological determinants)

In consideration of these boundaries on movement space, we would instead propose a refined concept of and viable micromovement space, that is, the part of the built environment within which day-to-day micromovement is viable. There is no universal viable micromovement space, rather, it varies on the boundaries placed upon the individual; it varies from the limited realm of a toddler to the more extensive realm of a young adult with a car. The viable micromovement space of individuals is not absolute, it can vary with time and changing housing locations; it changes as the boundaries and limitations placed on his movement space change.

Undoubtedly, modern urban transport has enabled the individual to travel much further in the finite amount of time available for commuting each day, and hence greatly enlarged the individual’s viable micromovement space.

A logical subset of viable micromovement space would be the first two extents of Brown and Moore’s postulate of the individual’s activity space (Brown and Moore, quoted in Hurst, 1974), that is, his day-to-day activity space, which is the part of the urban area with which direct contact occurs as the result of daily activities.

*section cut* (Core area, Median Area, Extensive area)

It should be self-apparent that in dealing with urban micromovement flows, we are primarily interested in the individual’s day-to-day activity space (especially the core area, which is responsible for the majority of trips), and not his extensive area of activity space.

In general, as viable micromovement space expands, opportunities increase as the “catchment area” for them increases, and therefore day-to-day activity space similarly expands, as individuals have the impetus and self-interest to realise these opportunities, in line with individual needs and goals.

This conception of space “allows for a re-orientation of movement studies away froom a description of habit patterns to an analysis of the causes behind movement behaviour” (Hurst, 1974), therefore promoting a better understanding of travel patterns “and insights into the true conditions governing transportation demands.” (Hurst, 1974), allowing for better management and manipulation of these demands.

Phone cam pic spam #1

2007-07-15T07:00:00.000+08:00

The title says it all... warning: phone cameras make for random badly-taken pics. Do not look for artistic merit, but have a good laugh. Images resized as usual for faster loading.

Ashish's slum

Posers

Guess who's taller? (or will be in 6 months)

Failed astrochallenge model...

New airport skytrain station

Airport skytrain station (looks better turned this way ><)

Industrial zone? Or University? NUS Science (Chemistry?) blocks actually. Looks quite bad...NUS lacks character, gives no esthetic pleasure (concept: Loftland)

pencil box and black notebook /random

The view from my table (my house is of the same design... and let's hope no joker changes the facade when he rebuilds his house)

Bad memories, and good.

Democratisation of the internet

2007-07-08T20:22:00.000+08:00

it's been a while since i posted a "content" post... and this is an interesting one i hope =)

Time magazine's "person of the year": YOU (look at the mirror)
image from gawker

We may not realise it, but each time we participate in the online community, be it blogging, adding our 2 cents worth to Wikipedia, or uploading a video to Youtube, we are contributing towards the "democratisation of the internet": the power of the internet has indeed truly been given to the people.

It is interesting, as a study of emergent properties in systems, and how bottom-up content-creation by millions or billions of individual users can vastly outdo what a top-down approach is capable of. Just look at Wikipedia, the most comprehensive resource available, and a de facto first stop for most of us when wanting to find out about something.

As an internet phenomenon the democratisation of the internet is unrivalled. Personal and social space online is free and plentiful (though fraught with dangers). The reach and the power it gives to the individual (ask mrbrown) is amazing. All is needed from the top is the infrastructure, and perhaps giving it some momentum.

There are implications, of course. First is abuse and censorship: just as people can post useful stuff online, so can the post hate speech and bomb-making instructions. And the internet is horrendously hard to censor, especially when it knows no borders.

Next is the reliability of online sources like Wiki: you probably won't want to rely on it for your thesis paper, but as general reading it is perfectly fine. The error rate is very, very low, and any errors can be corrected easily (unlike print encyclopedias: britannica got jacked when they went to look for errors in wiki, cos someone corrected the errors in 2 days).

But lim (t --> infinity), these problems will iron out. We are stepping closer to the ubiquity of information; the true age of the internet has just dawned.

P.S.

I also contribute to Wiki and Google Video (click on "more from user" in the sidebar".

I can't believe it that my atomic bomb video has 22700 views and 1230 downloads!!! Ok hopefully it has benefitted others.

Other RI wikipedians i know: Ren Yan, Joel Kek, Vincent, Jun Sean, Jeremy Sia

Light and reflection in the orange breeze.

2007-07-01T15:09:00.000+08:00

This occurred a long time ago I was waiting for a taxi outside the school gate.

The setting sun's cast a faint orange glow, and the playful shadows of dusk disrupted that, for the road's orange sodium lamps had yet to turn on. Traffic came in noisy waves, with every green from the Braddell junction. The floor was strewn with fallen yellow leaves, and these flew up as a cool breeze blew.

But no taxi came by, for half an hour.

As patient appreciation of the surreal scene (which reminded me of standing at the Beijing traffic light in winter) turned into impatience and frustration, my mind started to wander.

And suddenly I knew God was talking to me. He gave me 2 words: Refuge and Rejoice , and I stood silently in his company, praying and reflecting.

Those are 2 powerful words: To rejoice in the Lord, for his sacrifice, giving us life, and for what we are and what we have; To find refuge in him, patiently knowing that he loves us, will carry us through, and that he plans to prosper us and not harm us.

He told me to cross the road and get a taxi there - and i thought, how could it be? That spot is just down the road from J8, and with the long taxi queues at J8, all taxis coming down from there are bound to be occupied. Plus there was already someone waiting across the road

But cross the road I did. The guy aleady waiting there got his taxi within 30s, and I got mine a minute later.

Couldn't believe it - and I stil can't. But he works in amazing ways.

We should all go on strike

2007-06-24T18:45:00.000+08:00

It's the last day of the holidays... but i don't feel anything about going back to school tomorrow... cos it hasn't been any holiday at all.

And that's after false promises of a "no holiday homework policy"... I certainly second renyan's idea of a student's union (RIPB feedback seems to get ignored by upstairs).

We should fight for the French 35-hour work week, or at most double that (since we're kiasu Singaporeans)... i.e. a 70-hour work week, including all homework, projects etc (i.e. max 11.5 hours per day, excluding sunday, spent on school stuff).

Ok daydreaming over... i still have the chinese 读书报告 and 鹰的天空 to finish, 2cm of geog readings and an essay... and that's ignoring the stuff that is due after T3W1...

----------------------------------------------

On another note, here's a little introduction video i did for RI-BP science odyssey, which was basically a science competition we organised for primary schools. The storyline is a bit corny but the pri sch kids seemed to enjoy it. Haha

The ironies of a holiday

2007-06-14T02:10:00.000+08:00

It just doesn't feel like a holiday. So much homework (especially a particular subject)... plus all the CCA stuff and etc (though those are more fun).

It is necessary for us to go back to the principle behind a holiday. What is it for? To rest, to enjoy, to do what you like (e.g. CCA, attachments etc.). The idea is that it is a break from hectic school life.

Now juxtapose that against the current situation... and the dichotomy is striking. I'm not advocating totally no holiday work, but there must be a balance. Right now it is far from a holiday.

Like that very tiring and sian one (especially for certain subject's homework...). I want a break loh. Some more term 3 very xiong one.

I don't think i'll be able to finish the holiday homework... (with this competition and that)... the list on my blog is intended to improve my efficiency. So if you see me on msn please suan me on my unfinished homework...

"Teachers have been instructed NOT give holiday homework" - xxx. How ironic. Moral of the story: teachers also not obedient one.

I'm melting

2007-06-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

Sian... sit in front of com for 2 hours, blowing fan, then i become all sweaty and sticky. I buay ta han on aircon to do work dunno how many times the past 2 weeks.

Can't stand the koyak singaporean weather lah. So irritatingly hot - and way too humid.

There's this idea of a comfort zone (below), beyond which work becomes inefficient. heh. justification for aircon. Luckily our classrooms got aircon (but cannot change temperature, sometimes dunno why too hot one).

I actually like colder temperatures. Around 12-22 (Hamburg) is pretty comfy, and -2 to 5 (Beijing winter) is refreshing (and not as cold as it seems). Aircon does wonders too :-)

Gerdanken #2: Schrodinger's cat

2007-06-02T11:57:00.000+08:00

Schrodinger's thought experiment (in his own words):

A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a ``blurred model'' for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.

We know that superposition of possible outcomes must exist simultaneously at a microscopic level because we can observe interference effects from these. We know (at least most of us know) that the cat in the box is dead, alive or dying and not in a smeared out state between the alternatives. When and how does the model of many microscopic possibilities resolve itself into a particular macroscopic state? When and how does the fog bank of microscopic possibilities transform itself to the blurred picture we have of a definite macroscopic state. That is the measurement problem.

The Copenhagen intepretation:

A system stops being a superposition of states and becomes either one or the other when an observation takes place. This experiment makes apparent the fact that the nature of measurement, or observation, is not well defined in this interpretation. Some interpret the experiment to mean that while the box is closed, the system simultaneously exists in a superposition of the states "decayed nucleus/dead cat" and "undecayed nucleus/living cat", and that only when the box is opened and an observation performed does the wave function collapse into one of the two states. More intuitively, some feel that the "observation" is taken when a particle from the nucleus hits the detector.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle:

Ok I won't go too far for this one. The basic idea is that measuring a system changes it. If you measure the momentum of a particle, you will change its position. If you measure the position of a particle, you will change its momentum.

Therefore,given a particle, the uncertainty in momentum (Δp) times the uncertainty in position (Δx) is greater than or equal to the reduced planck's constant (or div 2??? some sources say div 2...).

ΔxΔp ≥ ħ/2

Welcome to quantumland

mostly lifted from wiki

Competitions + Music

2007-05-25T23:00:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... where should I start... Just finished the nat sci challenge and ijso (international olympiad) tests today. We got in for nsc, will be facing cat high and zhong hua in the 3rd quarters.

The NSC paper dunno why so much boliao questions (even "why is the dead sea salty" and maff. Then got some obscure bio words never even heard before. Then when they announce those who got in purposely give us heart attack: say announce in no order, then start announcing HC, AC, NUS, RGS.... in what we thought was descending order of scores, make us think we didn't get in, then announce us last.

IJSO paper of course more difficult than NSC - in fact it was harder than the IB prac papers. The bio again got some stuff never hear before, the physics about the same standard as the past year paper (i.e. hard but doable), and the chem quite good. But i already know my physics got a couple wrong.

Ok lah... praise the lord for NSC... and IJSO hope for the best loh.

Tomorrow is geog competitions. Switch track now. I'm reading Nagle at the moment, just realise how much stuff they cut out of RP syllabus... haiz...

Heart of worship

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
~ Philippians 4:6-7

Solitaire/ Clay Aiken

Do you want the world to slow down?

2007-05-20T13:39:00.000+08:00

---Original article---

Singapore: world's fastest walkers
CNN| Posted: 02 May 2007

Pedestrians all over the world are moving faster than a decade ago, according to scientists who have conducted a study into the pace at which people walk.

Psychologists say walking speeds have increased by an average of 10 percent in the past 10 years.
People in the greatest hurry live in Singapore, according to the study of cities in 32 countries. Following in their footsteps are residents of Copenhagen in Denmark and Madrid in Spain.

Researchers in each city found a busy street with a wide pavement that was flat, free from obstacles and sufficiently uncrowded to allow people to walk at their maximum speed.

The speed of each city's walkers was then timed by a team researchers, armed with stopwatches.

They timed how long it took 35 men and women to walk along a 60-foot (18-meter) stretch of pavement, monitoring only adults who were on their own and ignoring those conducting mobile phone conversations or struggling with shopping bags.

The results of the study, headed by British psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, were compared with similar results from a decade ago in an experiment carried out by American psychologist Professor Robert Levine, from California State University.

Wiseman said walking speeds provided a reliable measure of the pace of life in a city.

"This simple measurement provides a significant insight into the physical and social health of a city. The pace of life in our major cities is now much quicker than before. This increase in speed will affect more people than ever, because for the first time in history the majority of the world's population are now living in urban center," Wiseman said.

Surprisingly, some of the world's biggest cities did not even make the top five. New York came in at eight, London was placed 12th on the list and Tokyo was ranked 19th.

The findings also explode the myth of the laid back Irish. Dublin topped Levine's table in 1997 and takes fifth place on the new list.

The study was carried out with the help of the British Council, which promotes cultural links in 109 countries.

Comparing the results with those compiled by Levine in the 1990s, the study showed that people were, on average, now walking 10 percent faster. Men were generally 25 percent quicker on their feet than women.

The biggest changes were found in the Far East. In Singapore, walking pace had increased by 30 percent and in Guangzhou, China, the pace was more than 20 percent quicker.

---Additional articles---

Technology and time: pace of life
Metro article (picture below from here)

---Personal response---

As I read the article, I find myself nodding - rather vigorously. But I'm hardly surprised. Even school life is hectic - especially with torrents of homework, tests, and CCAs.

Why this fast pace of life?

First, we must consider how technology, which so permeates modern city life, really speeds things up. What was a 2-hour trip to the library is now a quick Internet search right from your desk. The ubiquity of handphones, coupled with low call charges, means that everyone is contactable anytime, anywhere, and we no longer have to wait till we reach home or office or scramble for a public phone to call others. Add to that how the coming PDA revolution will empower one and all to send emails and work on documents while on the move. This immediacy in itself translates into a fast pace of life.

Next, when computers make crunching thousands of cash-flow figures simple, we can do the same tasks in less time. But this does not mean that we have more time to relax. Rather, our greed and ambition means that we fill this extra time with more work. Things move faster.

My premise on human ambition is probably false for some people, but as long as some use technology to save time, do more, and race ahead, the threat of dropping out of the race forces everyone to follow suit, such that this becomes is the new standard expected of individuals in the modern workplace or classroom. Life easily gets hectic when you have to rush more in less time.

Do you want the world to slow down?

Personally, I enjoy a fast pace of life. In my opinion, being busy is just a way to make the most out of my life. While on holiday, I tried lazing about by the beach for a day, and couldn't take it - it was back into the shopping mall the next day to rush for bargains.

And yet consider the salarymen I see on the train home. More often than not, they look tired and worried. I can imagine how, as they stand in silence, squashed between other passengers, they are fretting about their mountain of work and looming deadlines. For these stressed-out salarymen, it is probably hard to find pleasure in work. They may also suffer from a short temper, and this strains relationships. Finally, the stress of a busy, fast-paced life can take a toll on their health.

It is hard to escape this hectic pace of life. Even if you juxtapose the busy, fast-paced Singaporean life against idyllic kampong life, few would be willing to give up the material luxuries that come with the former.

There can be no deus ex machina, but what the stressed salaryman can do to save his sanity from the hectic pace of life is to balance work and play and family to find some happiness, with which he can be recharged to cope with life in the fast lane.

(499 words)

Virginia Tech: a reflection on society and morality

2007-05-20T13:38:00.000+08:00

On April 16th this year, a deranged Virginia Tech student, Cho Seung-Hui from Korea, went on a shooting rampage, cutting short 33 young lives, including his own.

---Original articles---

General overview: US university shooting kills 33 [BBC]

More detail on Cho Seung-Hui, the deranged murderer: Killer’s manifesto: You forced me into a corner [CNN]

---On Cho Seung Hui: videos and quotes---

“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," Cho said in one of the videos that aired Wednesday night on NBC. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.” –Cho

Cho's "video confession"

Two disturbing plays Cho wrote: Richard McBeef and Mr Brownstone

---Background information: A state of nature and the social contract---

In Leviathan , the philosopher Thomas Hobbes once put forth the idea of a state of nature: Before the emergence of organised society and restrictions on free action, man existed in a state of nature. In such a state of nature, man, being selfish, did anything, including harming others, to benefit himself. The result, according to Hobbes, is "a war of all against all", and a "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" life.

Society has evolved to formulate a social contract, however, that seeks to prevent society from descending into a state of nature. Individual freedoms have been curtailed whenever they infringe on the basic rights of others. The rule of law, a universal moral code, enforces this, giving a state of peace and guaranteeing the security of the individual.

Further reading

---Personal reflection---

Life is amazing and beautiful. But it is incredibly fragile. I am stunned how such a terrible thing could happen in a school, where students study in the knowledge that they are shielded from the dangers of the outside world. How could a student, with such a promising future, suddenly decide to end his life, and take 32 others with him? There are a surfeit of questions, but few answers.

First, and foremost, this is a sad reflection of the human condition, of how a man's vicious anger and frustrations can interplay to produce horrendous actions and the most heartbreaking consequences. Why are we - even the best and the brightest in universities - capable of blatantly disregarding the rights and happiness of others, and harming them, for self-interest, revenge, or otherwise?

The shaken notion of a civil society

We often pride ourselves on having built a civil society, by enacting laws as a moral code, and inculcating in our young the values that build such a society, such that indivduals no longer act purely in self-interest and harm others, but are considerate, making for more pleasant lives for everyone.

But this notion of a civil society has been shaken time and again, by murders like Cho, and by fanatical terrorists.

Is this the sad state of morality today's "civil" society has bred? Or has today's society merely evolved such that Hobbes' "state of nature" and "war of all against all" merely superficially suppressed but not overcome, such that it is ready to rear its ugly head and guarantee misery for all and sundry once triggered?

A more caring society, please?

Cho's machine-gun rampage seems to be as much his fault as it is society's. It turns out that he has few friends, and does not fit into society. His anger and discontent with society, as well as his violent tendencies were well-known - in fact, he was once admitted into a mental hospital. Why didn't anyone do anything, such that Cho can say "you forced me into a corner"?

Similarly, the Muslim terrorists that blew themselves up on crowded Tube trains in July 2005 came from a marginalized and poor group of society. Honestly, it is impossible for me to understand their feelings and point of view, but I don't blame them for being disillusioned with society, when society treats them so badly.

It is these outcrops of society that are discontentd with society and such horrific disasters are bred. I say, we should care a lot more about such outcrops of society, e.g. by reaching out to people like Cho and seeking to integrate them into society, and in the case of the terrorists, providing their communities with good education and equal opportunities.

Before our society can claim to be civil, it must first be caring. Otherwise, a "state of nature", and the lawless anarchy and misery it guarantees, may not be so far away. All it takes is one nuclear-armed terrorist to blow a city to smithereens.

(499 words)

We, the Geog RA

2007-05-15T00:01:00.000+08:00

Haha had quite a fun trip to Malacca for Geog RA (last sat/sun). Learnt quite a lot, and we played cards till 3+am...

Anyway, the more serious photos and stuff in another post. For today we have a photo collage of the faces in Geog RA, 1 pic per person taken in not-too-flattering ways. Sorry shingbo u didn't go so i dun have your pic...

Btw this is how NOT to do a photo essay or portrait photography, if any RIPC members are reading.

Geog RA quite sporting... There were no violent objections when i asked around :-) So very good. Anyway, if any violent objections, email me and i remove your pic.

Jeremy (looking spastic)

Ren Yan (looking cute)

Samuel (shy)

Marc (round face)

Wenjie (well-oiled head, according to pekpek)

NicChee (NicCheeky)

Daniel (looking fierce)

Manish (too many fishballs in mouth)

Yong sheng (i love chendol!)

Derwin (Blackjack! now i stone)

Yu Hsuen (meditating)

No comments

Mr Yuen (Ooooo... the geography of food)

One big happy family

What happens every meal. We are singapore... singaporeans... CHIONG!

Hope you had a good laugh!
More photos from malacca coming up! Including: Black Earth Club episode I (Mrs Yak will shriek)

Quotable quotes #1

2007-05-06T03:11:00.000+08:00

Quotes from various teachers. To protect their identity, their names have been left out, so those who don't already know who said what won't get it. 2 subjects have been featured today. Have a good laugh!

"Very bad one, must report you to MOE"

"This notes very brief. Read my notes, the one I wrote on the board. Got copy right?" [got copy, right?] VS [got copyright]?????

"SS does not stand for slack slack"

"I like stick figures."

"This can be found on page x of your textbook."

"If you buy the 555 notebook I will also give you 5,5,5: 5 [raises palm] here [left check], 5 here [right cheek], and 5 here [butt]"

"Eh, why am I talking about this ah? This is A level biochemistry. But very interesting, good to know. Cannot only study for exam. But not tested ah, if you cannot understand nevermind."

"Seripu parakor!"

"Take for example, the primer sequence "CCT".... whoops"

"Are you sure we live in a democracy?"

"Algae with big leaves!"

"Let's play hangman"

"Actually I shouldn't spoonfeed you all. Nevermind, let's continue....." [continues at 3 words per second]

"Since you all didn't do your work, I'll read stories to you."

"Cannot say snatch, snatch too violent already!"

Got more interesting quotes? Tag and i'll add it to the list. Haha

Midnight express

2007-05-01T23:05:00.000+08:00

Ok the title is a misnomer... but anyway... here's a map of what our MRT system will look like, after the circle line and the bukit timah / marina bay / kaki bukit line are done. Thanks seng teck for the map!

If you haven't been reading the papers, the new line was just announced a couple of days back. Very good for me, expo station is within 3 bus stops of my house. Yay. Honestly, MRT is much much faster than buses (in fact, the speed is comparable to taxi), but if and only if there's a direct route.

And as we all know (even if you are not a real estate agent), MRT stations spur development and raise real estate prices. Can't wait for this tiny island to have a dense network of MRT like tokyo or london. Should also have LRT for routes with lower passenger density.

Lol my RE this year includes distance decay effect of bus travel and the role of buses as a medium-density (or maybe low-density) transport corridor.

Ok i'll end off with a pic that really needs no introduction. Thanks renyan.

Gerdanken #1: The last man argument and the intrinsic value of nature

2007-04-28T18:02:00.000+08:00

Imagine...

(1) You are the very last man left on Earth, and you will die in 1 min. After you die, the human race will be extinct; only wildlife will be left.

(2) A system of nuclear explosives, able to blow the whole Earth (with all its wildlife) up, has been set up.

(3) If you press the button and activate those explosives, it would blow the Earth up, but only after you die. Because there would be no more humans left on Earth, no humans would be killed, rather, only the Earth's nature and wildlife would be blown up forever.

Stop and think. Will you press the button? You would not kill any humans but only plants and animals. Does it even matter to you after you die? So would you press the button?

-------------------

Most people would not. A "no" answer lends credence to the intrinsic value of nature. It is an acknowledgement that nature and its wildlife does not only have a purely utilitarian value, but rather, also an intrinsic one i.e. nature does not exist purely to serve humans.

This has far-reaching implications on environmentalism and human responsibilities. Chew on it.

R ( I + P + A )

2007-04-22T21:31:00.000+08:00

I don't like my progress report.

Progress report is quite a screwed up thing. Some subjects only count 1 or 2 pieces of work, so gg if you screw that up. And the "percentile" thing isn't very nice. Put them together and you have a molotov cocktail for unhappiness. Like chem the 1st TA i screwed up and got 17/25, that mark kena put in my progress report as a terrible-looking "test" mark even though it is only 5% of CA.

For RA subjects even worse. If they give percentile within RA class, class size < 15 how to draw bell curve and give percentiles? And besides some pple in RA class will get bottom 10%, which shouldn't be the case since those in RA class are already the top 10% of their batch for that subject. But if they compare RA marks to RP marks to report a percentile, it's quite unfair since RA subjects are harder and pple score lower.

Sudoku!

2007-04-18T12:15:00.000+08:00

i added a new sudoku widget to the sidebar. Time out but don't get hooked! I generally find sudoku quite difficult to solve...

Btw anyone can suggest a good template with a space for me to put a standard size landscape photo, nice readable text, and tabs? Feel like changing template. This template a bit plain, and sidebar is very long.

I like sleeping. Drifting off to dreamland is rather much like a temporal opiate. But necessarily one that doesn't last. I especially like it if i only need to wake up past 10 - but that opportunity doesn't come by very often. With the crazy crazy RI life (mug-for-test-based academics + lots of additional performance tasks + heavy CCAs), i find i got to make do with 5-6 hours everyday.

Anyways, congrats to table tennis C div (won cat high today 3-1 in C div finals). But this year seems to be quite few golds. Academics so busy how to train until xiong? Honestly i was originally rather enticed by the idea of "project work" at first. I still agree with the idea of self-learning and research (except lower-sec nonsense "creative assignments", but it's quite heavy, especially if we're moving back to mug-for-test EOY system. Aiyah RP is trying to achieve too many things... need to focus. Raffles Academy the idea is damn good but the implementation needs to be tweaked.

Bah... national weather studies project presentation on thurs, NYP astro on fri...
I did say RI life is crazy. Too bad.

Btw i'm saving all the discussive posts on political, economics, and social issues for english portfolio (Philo posts does not fall under this category). Wait till week 9!

Costly epiphany

2007-04-14T02:06:00.000+08:00

Ok now that i've aired my views, let's leave the past behind us and move on. Makes no sense to get all tensed and unhappy with what's done. Btw congrats to SC

Air masses in free fall

2007-04-07T08:03:00.000+08:00

Here are the geog presentation slides, as requested. Pause as needed.

Tricellular model of global air circulation:

Case study - Russia: seasonal variations due to alternating ferrel and polar cells, and impact on human geography

The triceullar model one has quite a bit of physics, sorry bo pian lah. It takes some time to digest (especially the jet stream and rossby waves one).

And... we won ACJC geog quiz the other day. Yeah!

Crazy Chem Test aka CCT

2007-04-02T00:23:00.000+08:00

Chem RA CCT was disturbingly reminiscent of Math RA CCTs/TAs... they bear the common stamps of "a killer test", namely, insufficient time to complete the paper, difficult or otherwise indirect questions... and everyone screaming (almost literally) after time's up (and we're forced to hand up, even if we haven't finished writing).

Crazy paper lah. Most of the question i just chiong though, start scribbling and punching calculator even before read finish question, no time to think - and dun talk about checking. Yeah it's fun (i'm not being sarcastic) and challenging, but hopefully can pass lah. Not enough time... (all the CCT also, since they cram into 45min... and btw the 50min periods also very rush, but it's sure better than canceling 1 class).

But nonetheless, chem is fun. Just ask my last year RE partner (his identity is probably an open secret) - who, during RE last year, while Mrs Neo and I were both not looking, accidentally stumbled on the 1001 reactions that can be performed with the bench chemicals (as well as some others we used in our experiments: i.e. bromine water, sodium thiosulfate [which can decolourise G2 ink!], diethyl ether etc.).

RISC should do more crazy demos for curious P6s during open house... like 16M sulfuric acid + water (for the uninitiated, this is a highly exothermic (read: explosive) reaction), or burning nitrocellulose... heehee

Argh... probably getting back the marks next week. Hopefully i don't get homolytically cleaved by hyperreactive free radicals (in the form of evil little red digits dancing in brownian motion on the top right of the exam script)... bleah i'm delirious again.

Do support!

2007-03-28T00:29:00.000+08:00

This is an award winning murder mystery play, it's for charity. Details are all in the poster above.

Those interested pls sms me or find me in class. thanks

There is a higher throne

2007-03-27T23:18:00.000+08:00

Really beautiful song by Keith Getty

There is a higher throne
Than all this world has known
Where faithful ones from every tongue
Will one day come
Before the Son we'll stand
Made faultless through the Lamb
Believing hearts find promised grace
Salvation comes

Hear heaven's voices sing
Their thunderous anthem rings
Through emerald courts and sapphire skies
Their praises rise
All glory, wisdom, power
Strength, thanks and honour are
To God our King who reigns on high
For evermore

And there we'll find our home
Our life before the throne
We'll honour Him in perfect song
Where we belong
He'll wipe each tear-stained eye
As thirst and hunger die
The Lamb comes as our Shepherd King
We'll reign with him.

This song is probably inspired by Revelations 7:9-16

9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Your spirit is more powerful than your flesh
adapted from from Christnotes

The Holy Spirit, who lives in you if you've accepted God, is greater than anything in the world, including your flesh. Therefore, you do not have to be controlled by your flesh and worldly lusts.

This doesn't mean that things won't come against us, but it does mean that even when hard things come against us, God has given us the power to remain peaceful and joyful even in the midst of the difficult circumstances.Remember that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20).

The power God has given us is amazing; however, many Christians never activate that power in their own lives because they don't really believe that God will personally work in them.

Remember that Jesus said, "it shall be done for you as you have believed" (Matthew 8:13). Therefore, dare to believe that God has given you the power to do awesome things for Him -- things that you can only do because your spirit is more powerful than your flesh.

3am

2007-03-24T03:02:00.000+08:00

I just realised original flavour ruffles taste nice with mayonese. And cheese actually tastes better when you nibble it slowly. Chewing is actually stimulates your brain...

Listening to josh groban can give me good ideas, Kenny G improves analytical thought,and Tchaikovsky lets me do maths accurately. Green day prevents me from stoning and Vanessa Mee or Maxim does wonders to lethargy.

You see, at 3am in the morning, when you know that you got a ton of homework and projects to finish, but the bed seems so comfortable and sleep a temporal opium, you try ways and means to try and win the tug of war with lethargy. You better do it, or else you're screwed, and will wake up a deranged individual "between worlds" (ask morbid little ashish or jiawei how he inteprets that)

Btw... wenjie would like to caution everyone to avoid instant noodles like the plague in such a situation: from his personal experience, eating instant noodles makes the evil, evil instant noodle ghost tie its long strands of yellow noodle to your bed and switch on its electromagnet in search of his magnetic instant noodle babies in your stomach, dragging you to the bed by magnetic attraction in the process. Once you hit the sack it's KO. Game over. You're screwed.

That was totally random. Can't help being a little spastic at 3am.

I'm very sure many 3C (read: C for "CHAO mugger") peeps chiong homework at night (more accurately, morning) too. And got like daniel tan that kind of superman can don't sleep at all for 2 consecutive days one.

Argh... there should be 32 hours in a day. Soccer got extra time one. How come do homework dun have?

But after you get used to sleeping 4 hours a day, u don't feel tired anymore. Only very sian in the morning, especially when my radio automatically turns on at 6am and blasts national anthem!!! as if it's asking me to jump out of bed and sediah or something. NO WAY. why must they play it at my wake-up time...

What defines humanity

2007-03-19T22:54:00.000+08:00

"Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) may be the words of Descartes. Indeed he is not wrong.

But the greater dichotomy between man and beast, that allows us to juxtapose ourselves against the rest of the animal kingdom as a higher organism is probably the capacity to feel and to empathise, and in goodness and in love, act on this empathy, such that we edify the lives of others.

Go figure.

The incredible non-existant holiday

2007-03-12T22:16:00.000+08:00

A note for miss kuang:

I'm perfectly capable of code switching between proper, eloquent standard English and basilectal Singlish. But language is ultimately a tool of expression. And if Singlish best expresses what I want to say, how I want to say it, then I believe there is no reason to distance myself from this Uniquely Singapore rojak of languages and dialects.

I'll leave the discourse on how the Singaporean government should not impose a supposedly "refined" culture on Singaporean society, but for now, I'll just say that
(1) Society evolves its own culture ("melting pot"), culture should not be artificially constructed or imposed. (2) there is no such thing as a "superior" or "refined" culture (only modern and moral practices). Let me have my rojak... lah!

Ironies, ironies... our world got so many...

Like school holidays, or lack thereof (not even part thereof). Holidays and weekends supposedly time to do something fun and escape from the pressure-cooker grind of life one, budden got sooo much work until no more holiday and no more weekend liao... no need go school means sit at home do work...

Ok lah i admit i quite greedy and a bit workaholic lah, budden who say i dun like to play com? Surprise surprise... I love simcity and warcraft and command and conquer generals er...train simulator . Who wants to challenge me to C&C generals (if got time)?

I think they should at least let us off during december holidays. Ahem...chinese department? 良药苦口利于病，忠言逆耳利于行 (the first time i use chinese on my blog!). Faham tak? Atau mau faham tak? December no kw den i can do my own stuff (i.e. slack - my definition of slacking includes both reading stuff like economist and playing com though).

Ok rant over.

Make poverty history

2007-03-04T23:59:00.001+08:00

Original article:

Category: social issues
Muhammad Yunus wins the Nobel peace prize for providing micro credit to the poor in Bangaladesh. The Economist discusses his achievements, as well as microfinance in general, and their impact on eradicating poverty.

Macro credit: Muhammad Yunus has won the Nobel peace prize for his role in promoting financial services for the poor

Oct 19th 2006, from the Economist print edition.
Also available online with a subscription. Click here

FOR many of the supporters of Muhammad Yunus and the institution he created, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, the announcement that the two will share a Nobel peace prize is long overdue—the only surprise is that it was so long in coming. Grameen's website lists 60 awards, 27 honorary degrees, and 15 other “special honours” previously received by Mr Yunus directly, and seven received by Grameen. The selection committee said the prize was for developing what “had appeared to be an impossible idea”, namely loans to people who lack collateral.

Mr Yunus has unquestionably helped create an industry that provides financial services to the poor, combining his experience of growing up in a small village with his academic background as an economist to popularise what was once just a fringe area of banking and an obscure idea about alleviating poverty. Grameen has become a sizeable institution, with 6.7m customers, most of them women and all of them poor. Grameen has, by its own reckoning, distributed $6 billion in loans, each on average less than $200. Dressed in a traditional Bangladeshi outfit made by a Grameen affiliate, the charismatic Mr Yunus, with his soft voice and warm smile, can transform the dry, grinding mechanics of banking into a bewitching story about beggars, children and empowered women, all benefiting from credit that should be a human right and could even, he says, end poverty.

Even so, loans to the poor have existed for thousands of years. The formalised system of small borrowing that Mr Yunus pushed in Bangladesh beginning in the mid-1970s was being tried in bits and pieces around the world at the same time, and earlier as well. Even in Bangladesh, where his award was warmly received as an international endorsement, there are two other equally large and innovative microfinance institutions: BRAC, which dates back to the same era as Grameen, and ASA, which came later but improved on the basic model. Yet as remarkable as these three are, to single them out is, in a sense, unfair. There are thousands of financial institutions around the world providing financial services to the very poor. It is a world of extraordinary individuals, and one that has advanced as a result of collective insights. Physics and chemistry, to cite two other Nobel categories, may be built upon the shoulders of a few giants, but microfinance needs—and has—thousands of them.

Mr Yunus and Grameen succeeded by seizing an idea, expanding quickly, proselytising and resisting the temptation to move beyond the poor. His particular approach to microfinance has not, however, been without controversy. By legend, Grameen grew out of a $27 loan Mr Yunus made in 1974 to a woman manufacturing furniture who did have credit, but at an exorbitant price. Grameen emerged soon thereafter, based on several key operational techniques: loans were made to individuals but through small groups who in effect (if not explicitly) had joint liability; the loans were for business, not consumption; and collection was frequent, usually weekly. Interest charges were significant—the money was not aid, and a fundamental tenet of Grameen is that the poor are creditworthy—but the rates were relatively low (currently just above 20%).

This approach had virtues and limitations. Low rates and lower savings (except as a back-up for repayment) meant that in its early years, Grameen relied on capital from public and private donors—something that less charismatic or connected entrepreneurs than Mr Yunus found hard to replicate. Joint liability for loans became an increasing problem for groups when some members wanted to borrow more than others. And it was unclear whether the money received really did always go to business, rather than daily needs. A deeper question is just how helpful such tiny loans really are. Heart-warming case studies abound, but rigorous analyses are rare. The few studies that have been done suggest that small loans are beneficial, but not dramatically so. A further question is whether an approach emphasising credit really can eradicate poverty: a ridiculously ambitious goal, though one that Mr Yunus's evangelical view of the virtues of credit has perpetuated. Whether this form of lending has led to peace, the presumptive reasoning behind the award, is just as big an unanswered question.

Credit where credit's due

The classic Grameen model began to fray in the 1990s and hit a wall in 1998, when a devastating flood pushed up losses and people began missing weekly payment meetings. Mr Yunus was no doubt familiar with microfinance innovations in other countries: BRI in Indonesia had transformed itself from a wreck into a huge success by emphasising savings, not credit, and other institutions had started to abandon group lending. Grameen restructured in 2001, emphasising savings (deposits now exceed loans) and relying less on joint liability for groups.

With Grameen now thriving and the Nobel on the shelf, what will Mr Yunus do next? There are persistent rumours that he might enter politics, given his prestige within Bangladesh. And this could be a good time for him to step away from microfinance, which appears to be at an inflection point. Institutions continue to emerge and grow, many funded by private capital and seeking a real return, an approach Mr Yunus opposes. They often begin by charging higher rates than Mr Yunus considers legitimate, but cut prices when their returns draw competitors—a tough but theoretically more supple model. Microfinance would also benefit from a voluntary regulatory structure to improve its access to capital, and greater use of technology to reduce transaction costs. What it needs, in short, are the boring, quiet innovations that dynamic industries depend upon, but which, alas, do not win prizes. The Nobel, and its recognition of microfinance's most charismatic cheerleader, may mark the end of an era as a more mature industry starts to emerge.

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Personal response

photo: The orion “Don’t waste food. The children in Nigeria are starving.” I only really understood my mum’s oft-repeated rhetoric when I saw poverty, in all its disgrace, for myself.

I was in Beijing on an exchange programme last December. One evening, as I walked down a filthy street, burying my hands away from the icy gale, in the snug comfort of my pockets, I noticed a scrawny man - with a stump for his right hand – shiver in the bitter cold in his filthy cardbox “home”. He only had a tattered (and probably scavenged) bedsheet for warmth. Hesitating, I decided he wasn’t one of those I had been warned about, and rummaged in my haversack (chock full with cheap shopping) for some shirts to offer to him. The gratitude in his eyes pierced my conscience. Hopefully, they would keep him warm.

Born into prosperity - and all its luxuries - I consider myself blessed. I know not what it is like to be poor and hungry. All I know it that it isn’t nice – and that that’s an understatement.

The root of dystopia

Looking at the affluent first world, capitalism seems to work as an economic model. But it’s far from a panacea. It causes extreme polarization. 1.1 billion worldwide subsist on less than US$1 a day (see endnote 1). The very concept of survival of the fittest, which makes capitalism successful, also makes it cruel. While the fittest survive, the rest, like that disabled man in Beijing, languish. The race to riches has sidelined many.

The poor world is also plagued with a deluge of problems – ranging from political turmoil (Bangladesh) to civil war (Iraq) and even genocide (Sudan). These only exacerbate an already dire situation via direct damage and killing off what little economic opportunities there are.

Hope of a better age

It is only right that we, on the greener pasture, emerge from our selfish disinterest and help the poverty-tormented.

But throwing money at the problem won’t work. Aid is only temporary relief; it doesn’t make the poor any richer. When donor fatigue sets in, the poor are often left to rot (see footnote 2). To reap sustainable long-term benefits, on a scale much greater than what aid can do, the poor must stand on their own two feet: they need to sort out their domestic bedlam, and develop their economy. Education is key to escaping the poverty cycle.

We should help them along. Micro-credit to the poor, as Yunus has done, is one good way to give the poor opportunities to move up the economic ladder, and kickstart the third-world economy. It would be sad if others extend micro-credit as a profiteering business – every single cent should go to the poor, not into someone’s fat wallet.

Yunus deserves his Nobel. If only others could follow his example – especially those politicians and farmers who sabotaged the Doha trade talks with their selfish demands.

The children in Nigeria deserve better. They’re humans too.

You too can help eradicate poverty. Click here.

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English online blog of personal response to current affairs.
Portfolio submission 1 for Term 1

Nigel Fong (3C / 6)
19 February 2007

Word count: 499, excluding endnotes & bibliography.

Endnotes & Bibliography

1. Glossary. The World Bank. Retrieved 20.2.2007, from http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/beyond/global/glossary.html#52 Click here

2. A good background reader on and example of donor fatigue: Purtill, Corinne, (2005). Charities fear ‘donor fatigue’. Retrieved 20.7.2007, from http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/1012ev-needs12Z10.html Click here

3. Update: The economist article ends by acknowledging rumours that Yunus might enter politics. These rumours turn out to be true. Yunus has formed a political party and entered Bangaladeshi politics. He is a welcome addition to Bangaladeshi's chaotic politcal scene, dominated by 2 women perpertually at loggerheads. There are fears, however, that he might succumb to the corruption that pervades Bangaladeshi politics. Further reading

Personal response to "Stop stop the chop chop"

2007-03-04T23:59:00.000+08:00

Original article:

Category: environment
Brazil proposes a fund to reward developing countries to cut their rate of deforestation. Others regard trading “avoided deforestation” certificates as carbon-credits as a better alternative.

Stop stop the chop chop: Trees and how to save them

Nov 2nd 2006, from the Economist print edition.
Also available online with a subscription. Click here

FEW things on earth seem as defenceless as a forest. To many people, it is worthless unless harvested for its trees or destroyed to create farmland. Tropical forest is vanishing at a rate of 5% a decade, wrecking habitats and releasing 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, a fifth of global greenhouse emissions.

Most tropical forest is in poor countries, so giving it monetary value may be the best way to save it. Efforts to do that are accelerating. At a United Nations meeting on climate change in Kenya next week, Brazil is expected to propose a fund to reward developing countries that cut their rate of deforestation. This is a change of heart: till last year, Brazil had resisted the idea of taking cash in return for keeping trees intact.

Brazil's idea relies on contributors' goodwill. The only penalty for countries that cheat would be the loss of future incentives. Some think it might be better to trade certificates in “avoided deforestation” in the global carbon-credit market, through which polluters in rich countries can pay others to reduce emissions.

The economic value of chopping down trees varies widely, the World Bank notes in a new study. Pasture in the Amazon is worth as little as $200 a hectare. At the current price of carbon credits (which is volatile) the same area of dense rainforest would be worth around $7,500, says Kenneth Chomitz, the report's main author. So the gains from clearance are often much less than the cost to the planet of the carbon released by burning or rotting trees. Thus it may make sense for rich polluters to pay, via the market, for the forests' upkeep.

Sceptics say “dumping” forests on the world's carbon market would lower the price, thus reducing the incentive for rich countries to use greener power—unless emission targets were toughened, which would tighten the market. Other greens say countries should be paid for providing “eco-services”—like biodiversity—and not just for avoiding destruction.

But even if the effect of “cash for non-deforestation” is short-term, it is worth having: it could buy time to develop non-fossil fuels.

In any case, Brazil is already making progress. Deforestation in the year to August dropped 30% to 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 square miles). Last year's fall was similar. One (changeable) factor is a strong currency, which depresses prices for farm products. IPAM, a think-tank, also credits tougher state action against land grabbing and corruption.

All this will boost Brazil's case as it sets out to convince other countries it can reliably deliver exactly what they say they need—intact forests.

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Personal response

photo from this page , source uncertain

Humans have imposed a plethora of changes on our planet. Transforming barren land into prosperous is sensible; but relentless, short-sighted development has had its ramifications on the environment – 80% of the Earth’s natural forests have been destroyed (see endnote 1). It is a question of finding a balance.

It’s the economy, stupid (see endnote 2)

Chopping trees down and selling their wood is quick and easy money. I do not blame the poor and hungry when desperation forces them to do so to fill their grumbling stomachs – and that of their children. But the greedy (like big logging companies) who deforest in astronomical volumes to fatten their wallets should be condemned. I may not fully understand the unique situation of some, for whom there is no alternative livelihood to logging, but all I can say is this: don’t be greedy.

We, at the other end of the wood trade, are also to blame. It is our insatiable demand for paper and wooden furniture that makes the tree-killing business so profitable and attractive.

We ought to do better

Considering that forests are a pillar of our very existence, blessing us with oxygen, fertile land, wood, and much more, removing them is illogical and shocking. All that deforestation for short-term material benefits has long-term consequences.

And utility isn’t the only impetus to conserve. It is selfish and egocentric to regard the forests as our own property (hence we have every right to do as we please with it, as the argument goes). No. Forests are the common property of past, present, and future generations of all living things on this earth. Morality dictates that we avoid depriving others – including our descendants – of this vital resource.

Light at the end of the tunnel

I am no expert in this, but I feel a fund to reward developing countries that cut their deforestation rate and trading “avoided deforestation” certificates as carbon credits (see endnote 3) are both feasible solutions. Here’s how they work:

The economic inconsistency fundamental to deforestation is this: the value of trees is intangible; hence they don’t have an attached monetary value (a “price tag”). In terms of dollars and cents, trees are free – hence the incentive to cut them down and monetize them.

Both solutions would address this economic inconsistency by attaching a monetary value to trees (you have to pay to deforest). Hence economic self-regulation can occur: making deforesting more expensive reduces the profitability to deforest, hence less deforestation occurs, and wood products become more expensive, reducing demand. All in all, less trees will be cut down.

At the very least, these proposals are a step in the right direction, indicating a newfound commitment to overcome the collective action problem (see endnote 4) and stop deforestation.

Is it too late?

We often take things for granted – until it is too late. Hopefully, it isn’t too late to save the trees, but we must act immediately, for, with each ticking second, we are more likely to have crossed the path of no return.

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English online blog of personal response to current affairs.
Portfolio submission 1 for Term 1

Nigel Fong (3C / 6)
19 February 2007

Word count: 498, excluding endnotes & bibliography.

Endnotes & Bibliography

1. Forest Holocaust, (n.d.). Retrieved 17.2.2007, from National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html Click here

2. Phrase originates from Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 US presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush.

3. See Kyoto protocol for background information on carbon credits

4. Collective action problem (background information): When the benefits of doing something are dissipated among everyone, but the cost is concentrated on one party, there is no impetus for that party to carry out that action. This results in a lot of foot-dragging. A perfect example of this would be the crazy amount of foot-dragging by nations in solving global environmental and trade problems. The collective action problem is overcome when the detriments of inaction are so severe that all parties involved get together and act collectively.

Why

2007-03-04T03:17:00.000+08:00

The essence of christianity.

It is marvelous how God provides me with unmeasurable strength and carries me through times of need, always making a way even when i seem to have hit a dead end. It is even more amazing how I can speak to him and feel him comforting and encouraging me deep in my heart. And I rest in the confidence that he, in his great love and forgiveness, will take care of me, and whatever happens is whatever he intended to happen, even though I may not always see why.

Prefect's investiture

2007-03-01T23:34:00.000+08:00

The long nights of staying back till 11 to rehearse and do decor finally paid off. Was quite a memorable occasion, went smoothly. Kudos to all the ICs and exco for taking charge of the planning. Black shoes look nice haha

But the unite cheer was terrible... pls lah ri pple, that screaming (in a high-pitched girl/gay voice) is so embarrassing.

Paul tern kena dunk in swimming pool after event... haha... looked quite crazy, 70 orange-shirted prefects all chiong-ing from hall towards the pool (carrying paul) and chanting "let's go paul tern let's go". btw i heard it's not the first time, he also kena during some CCAL thing, like how anish (debates chair) nearly kena last time after debates farewell party for our previous coach (but his weight saved him - cannot carry to pool from atrium, so halfway give up and released him).

On music

2007-02-25T17:57:00.000+08:00

Pachabel rant comedy

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Music is a beautiful thing - it is marvellous that particular intervals of Hz should sound pleasant (God's creation!).

Personally i take quite fondly to a wide range of music: instrumentals to new age, and oldies to contemporary to pop - the most important thing is that the melody must be nice. But i can't stand heavy rock or metal...

The other thing is that i'm perfect pitch (though i get confused frequently) . I took Yamaha from young, their exams have a listening segment where they play something both hands and u play back the exact thing to them. Being perfect pitch sometimes sux badly... it is damn painful on the ears whenever someone sings off-tune, or some lousy song has too many dissonants, or the note a drum plays (very low but still discernable) is dissonant with the song...

I think AB exams sux... come on lah music is not only about getting all the technicals and theory and "learning about composers" right, and definitely not about playing 3 stupid songs and lousy scales for the whole year. But well, i'm going to complete liao, so no point stopping now... theory exam only a couple of weeks more... no time to mug (especially those italian terms). Sian.

An economist joke

2007-02-19T13:30:00.000+08:00

This tongue-in-cheek adorned portrait of Kim Jong Il (everyone's beloved eccentric dictator) was the front cover of the latest issue of economist.

Take a closer look - beneath the obvious layer of irony ("L-O-V-E", "Make love, not war", "Peace", " Ban the bomb") there is another tier of humour.

Notice this symbol? This is the peace symbol, developed as a logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarnament.

There is one peace symbol with a rainbow-coloured background. Now that's different. A rainbow flag, also known as the "gay pride flag", represents the homosexual community. Obviously, the economist is poking fun at Kim - and considering the economist's love for subtle humour, and deliberate choice of words and photos, i'm pretty certain this is deliberate.

OBS video

2007-02-11T23:48:00.000+08:00

Here's the OBS video ( with the sound, which didn't play during the finale), reduced quality for streaming though. We'll be burning a good quality version plus some extras for everyone in a CD. Bye!

Climate map

2007-02-08T23:24:00.000+08:00

An interesting animation on climate change, what needs to be done, and how emissions reduction can be achieved. Click here

Singapore transport conglomerates, their PR efforts, and commuter's welfare (or the lack of it)

2007-02-03T21:04:00.000+08:00

Looks nice from the outside, but inside, the only things you'll see are your fellow sardines' hair and the train roof - and perhaps, on the newer trains, a non-functional LCD display (photo:wiki).

In an obvious attempt to brainwash its (pitiful) people (not that the hard threats of death or being left out when it comes to doling out rations don't work), North Korea's repressive dictatorship names Pyongyang Metro stations after themes of its socialist revolution (e.g. Victory, Unity), and blasts chants of slogans and nationalistic songs through their rail network's Propaganda Assistance (PA) system. Well, that's if and only their metro isn't temporarily shut down due to an electricity shortage (the making of fuel embargos) - but that aside.

Now let's look at Singapore's MRT system. The striking similarities are uncanny. I'm not only talking about those irritating "Going to Chinatown or Little India? take the SMRT link bus service..." [instead of the NEL] advertisements that SMRT blasts through its PA, but rather, the transport conglomerates' whole toolbox of blatent and sometimes cunning or underhand PR campaigns.

This affects you and me

Take, for one, the Public Transport Council. Really, people shouldn't squabble over fare increases of a few cents - or so they say. But it adds up to marvellous profits for the transport conglomerates. Maybe enough to buy peanuts - at the expense of the poor $600-a-month odd-job workers or toilet cleaners, who don't really have a transport alternative. The PTC, in my opinion, is a joke of a government-sponsored PR campaign that lends the fare increases some facade of legitimacy.

Next, look at SMRT's denial of rush-hour crushloading. Yes, it may be below the manufacturer's stated limits, but the limits are actually an approximation of the maximum permissible load, not the maximum no. of passengers (since anyway, people differ in volume around the globe). Anyone who takes the MRT during rush hour can testify how packed it is - I usually count about 7 passengers per square meter of standing room - that works out to be 230% of a defined normal load (by convention, a normal load is 3 passengers per square meter). It doesn't take a train to be as crowded as Japan's notorious subway to be called "crowded" - and just as the crime rate of other countries being high is no reason for ours to be similarly high, the fact that the subways of other countries is crowded (as SMRT loves to repeat) is no excuse for ours to exhibit the same problem.

Even worse is SMRT's most recent PR effort: "Cram Jam", in which SMRT attempts to set a world record for squeezing as many people as possible into 1 train carriage or 1 bus (and force volunteers who sign up to get squished to make a $15 donation towards some charity thing- and let's not talk about how forcing people to donate is against the principles of charity). Wouldn't these figures (of how many people can fit into a train or bus) just seem too convenient to justify (or imply) how trains or buses can fit so many more people and hence aren't crowded? They haven't done it (yet), and I hope they won't ... but i doubt they would be able to resist.

The way forward

The government should have some form of check and balance (with much more teeth than the PTC) promoting commuter's welfare, and protecting your poor noodle-stall or shopping-mall-toilet auntie from the profit motivated (and hence selfish) interest of these transport conglomerates.

Better still, since transport is such an essential public service and many people just don't have other alternatives, break the transport duopoly, and return this essential public service to the people. Make it a government-managed, not-for-profit public service / "charity" - minus the golden taps please, but i'll welcome free peanuts, of a very different kind, to munch on board.

Jesus take the wheel

2007-01-26T20:16:00.000+08:00

So true.

Idiot Bush: both in this video and in reality. Enjoy.

2007-01-21T00:23:00.000+08:00

Debates

2007-01-20T23:18:00.000+08:00

Argh... we lost to chij-tp at srjc quarter finals... We proposed "THBT (this house believes that) nuclear weapons are necessary for world peace" and sort of screwed up lah. Sian ah they get us to prep semis and finals when quarters are impromptu and on the same day, lose quarters then the prepped cases can throw away... Argh still haven't gotten over it

RJC won, VJC second. Surprise: RJ didn't prepare the cases they were supposed to prepare and did a last-minute thing. But that means they're smart enough to do that... so congrats to them.

But on a happier note, RI (kartik, shi yang, lionel, samuel) won arena quarters vs HCI, even after lagging behind by 20-0 after the 1st round. Haha... good luck and god bless for the next round!

OBS

2007-01-14T18:14:00.000+08:00

Ok I survived OBS.... haha

Well... most of the activities are quite fun - like kayaking, abseiling, jetty jump etc. Except the land expedition: for the uninitiated (and the RG peeps going next week) this means carrying a 20kg backpack and walking all over in EITHER rain or suffocating heat and humidity.

But we kena mobile... the camping quite sian ah... especially when it rain and rain and rain... everynight pitch up tent, go sleep, then half hour later it will start pouring and the tent become swimming pool - i don't mind if the water is clean (that will be like sleeping in a bathtub of sorts) but it's all muddy, sandy, and basically gross. All this pitching up of tent bla blah blah takes up a lot of time leh... But a tent, being such a small confined space, really encourages u to know your tentmates better... got one night me and my tentmates (choon how, yongsheng, renyong) talk and talk cos cannot sleep (read: too uncomfortable to sleep)... Den we didn't really have proper food (except a couple of meals at the canteen)... only dry and canned rations.

Actually rain got pro and con also lah... at least not so hot, so dun sweat so much and stink so much and dun get so much bites. Then i was navigator for the kayak sea expedition.. then got one time rain so heavy until whiteout, visibility less than 20m, navigate the kayak also got to tikum tikum with the compass and map, if got obstacle u won't see until u r very close. But den my kayak the front hull got 5cm crack, the more water u bail out the more goes in.... so choon how and i ended up kayaking an extra half-kayak load of water around... then lag like shit. in fact the instructor told me after i used that kayak they condemned it... haha.

I think OBS makes a ripoff profit from the equipment replacement.. one mess tin charge $7.40??? just a metal piece of scrap that dents easily cost 7.40? rip off man... well, it's a COMMERCIAL operation after all...

Top: cook watch, half of 3C class... Really got to know everyone better through this OBS. Made friends with everyone, especially some (u noe who u are :-))

Will Zhang was right. OBS really brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. I've heard horror stories from certain friends from XYZ class about their bo chap, selfish, and slack watch, and am really quite happy that my watch really got quite good "gotong-royong" (合作）spirit. Everyone is basically nice to each other, and all contribute to the group :-). And in fact i see that everyone (or almost everyone) has some sort of leadership potential that just emerges at the appropriate moments. Quite hard to find such groups of nice pple.

Well, so at the end of the day, i find that i both love and hate OBS... it is certainly an invaluable experience.. but i could have done away with some of its things. had my share of fun and suffering. I got to know my classmates better, but the mosquitos and what not also got to know me better..... It has allowed me to appreciate (and love) comfort even more, but thank god it's over.

OBS next week

2007-01-07T22:44:00.000+08:00

Haha next week whole week OBS liao... should be quite fun. And yes i'm doing photography again.

But den the next day after i come back got debate competition... 3 rounds some more leh... quite xiong ah. We've chionged all the prep this week, and I seriously hope we're not too tired to debate, and not too disadvantaged cos we're against teams like MGS, ACS, and some JCs who are well rested and have much more time to prepare... Tell me if u want to come and support :-) It's whole day (saturday 13/1) at Serangoon JC.

Just a little something from Will Zhang: OBS brings out the best in some pple and the worst in others... really... how fun it is depends on your attitude. it's as fun as you want it to be. Haha.

Going to sleep early (for once) Bye!

School start liao

2007-01-03T21:43:00.000+08:00

Walau holidays pass so fast one... haven't even sit down and play a proper game of simcity or train simulator or warcraft already school start. As if like theory of relativity or something... (or more correctly, the opposite of it, since in ToR, time slows down in relativistic speeds)

Walau first day of school already rush like shit like that... haha but luckily pple quite cooperative today, especially morning assembly. and there weren't that many latecomers... (yah, latecoming point is the only job where less business is better). Budden everything else rush like shit... one stack of meetings... i certainly hope it doesn't get much worse than this. Btw, good job theodore for first day prog, can really see u put in a lot of effort... but stay calm and in control and just dun panic kae?

To the class of 3C... haha it's nice to know all of you. let's make it like a great class, and a great 2 years. sit tight and unite as a class! it's going to be a roller coaster ride ahead. I tend to find it quite hard to remember names and match them to faces.. so pls give me some time :-) Do talk to me about almost everything and anything (except sports and some forms of entertainment anything reflecting moral depravity)... and ask me for my pet topics :-) i have quite a few pet topics (e.g. MRT, quantitative chem analysis, cameras) for which i retain quite a database of info...

New year's resolutions:

#1 To walk closer to God, find happiness and refuge in him, and live for his purpose, with him providing the directions, and not to be bogged down by work such that i grow distant from God

#2 To bring more to know the Lord, so that they will have eternal life and an infinite source of strength and comfort living right in their heart (including my dad, who isn't christian)

#3 To do the best in everything i do, and trust in god to do the rest

#4 To edify the lives of those around me

These r only the 4 most impt ones... there are more (pertaining to GPA etc... not that you can't guess that )

The environment: why people will care, sooner or later

2006-12-31T02:01:00.000+08:00

photo: European Environment Agency (click on photo for site)

Humans have changed a lot of things. Of these, there are some things that should be changed, like poverty, like monarchy. But the relentless pursuit of development has had its ramifications on the environment. Considering that the environment is the pillar of our very existence, blessing us with clean air, water, sufficient food, and good land to farm and build, that's probably something we don't want to change.

Shock and awe

It is a proven biological and social concept that the more gradual a change, the better humans and wildlife alike are able to adapt to the change and the felt impact of the change is therefore reduced. We see this all the time - in the wild, most animals have been able to survive the gradual transition from the ice age to today, while the dinos were all wiped out with a sudden temperature drop due to a giant meteorite; and in more civilised society, we've been able to cope with a gradual tripling of oil prices, but thai stocks plummeted after the sudden, unexpected (and bird-brained) institution of capital control measures.

For the past couple of hundred of years, ever since the industrial revolution kickstarted our pollutive and eco-unfriendly ways, our world's climate and environment has been changing - but gradually. Now, there's a kind of delayed-feedback mechanism here, hence the gradual change: if you slash and burn a football-sized area of forest today, you're not going to get a football-sized patch of barren land tomorrow, or even a month later.

The trouble is that the damage we did, and are still doing, to the environment has increased exponentially - so, logically, the wounds the environment's going to show will also increase exponentially. That goes to say, this change we're talking about isn't going to be gradual any longer.

To exacebate the situation - notice that we're haven't been getting the proportionate amount and scale of feedback from our inputs to the environmental system. For example, carbon dioxide levels since the industrial revolution have gone way off the scale (almost 3 times the natural fluctuation of the past million years). One, that isn't any gradual change; Two, remember delayed-feedback? We may not feel the full impact of this now, but it's sure to come back to haunt us.

So that's pretty much a time-bomb on our hands. And we're already seeing a sneak preview of it exploding:For one, the five hottest years on record have occured within the last 7-8 years, we've seen deadly heatwaves in europe; The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season is the most active in recorded history (with memorable monsters like Katrina) and also the most devastating (causing at least 2,280 deaths and US$100 billioin in damages).

Since it's neither insignificant nor gradual, is highly visible and dramatic, and (best of all) hits people where it hurts most - in terms of dollars and cents and human lives, it's going to have a whopping felt impact. That's just a sneak preview, the tip of the iceberg - and Bush is already having problems dealing with it. When the shock and awe really starts, the environmental movement will not only infiltrate every level of politics, but also cause the masses to join today's few sore-throat, lost-hope environmentalists in creating an unprecendented amount of ground support. That's when we'll really have to sit up and do something about it.

Capitalist self-regulation

Elementary economics tells us that any economic system self-regulates to balance supply and demand - if supply goes down, price goes up, therefore demand tends to go down. As our fossil fuels and other natural resources gradually get depleted, supply will tend to go down (the production of several OPEC countries are already falling below their quota due to drying-up oil fields - and let's not talk about overstated oil fields yet). Hence the price of natural resources will go up, and in fact, the oil price has tripled and stabilised at almost that level - and it seems unlikely to head south in future.

This means two things: Firstly, businesses and governments alike will reduce their consumption of pollutive fossil fuels natural resources, so pollution would tend to go down. One visible example of this is the aircraft industry, in which "fuel efficiency" is the buzzword - aircraft manufactors are going to great lengths to reduce fuel consumption, for example by using expensive composites - such that the airbus A380 has nearly the same fuel consumption as the old Boeing 747.

Secondly, green technology would appear much cheaper in comparison, hence higher adoption of green technology, and increased funding for green R & D is likely. And this, for sure, is a good thing, since green technology not only reduces consumption of natural resources but attempts to be environmentally-friendly in every way, hence promoting environmentalism even more, and reduces the damage we do to the environment

Also, it is becoming increasingly obvious that many things we take for granted - like the environment's capacity to absorb pollution, water resources, fertile soil... are finite, but self-replenishing resources, since pollution and other damage to the environment are having more and more visible ramifications - e.g. in the form of desertification and/or land degradation when unsustainable farming methods are used. Hence some form of governmental regulation will - eventually - surface to ensure that we do not the damage we do the environment and the self-replenishing resources (i prefer not to use the term "renewable") do not exceed its ability to recover from our damage and replenish those resources and hence is sustainable, and will not deplete these resources or irreversibly damage the environment. And this is what we have seen in international fishing quotas, and sulphur dioxide emission treaties (sulphur dioxide emissions has actually decreased).

Economic agendas may be a distraction from the environmental one, especially in countries like China, but only a temporary one. The environment is one irreplaceable pillar of any economy - whether in terms of providing water, electricity, or fertile land for farming. If the environment collapses, so will the economy. When this happens, or hopefully, before this happens, people will care about the environment, and take steps in that direction

But will it be too late?

When we talk about damage to the environment, there is a point of no return: Do enough damage to the environment fast enough, and it will be irreversably wrecked, with no capability to repair itself. The principle is similar to that on wildlife: wildlife can adapt to changes in the ecosystem, but if the change is big enough and fast enough, that species just goes extent.

So the question is whether we have crossed that point of no return. Only time will tell. Judging from the scale of the damage to the environment, and the fact that we only started this havoc business during the industrial revolution (only slightly over 200 years ago), one thing's for sure - that point of no return isn't very far away, if we haven't crossed it yet. But to be pessimistic is to be defeatist. The human race has every reason to be optismistic and take steps to ensure that we do not cross that point, beyond which, the capacity of Earth to support life, and our very own existence, is to be questioned.

It starts with you and me. Now or never.

Recommended reading / viewing: The inconvenient truth (movie or book) (Al Gore's educational campaign on global warming)

My flickr: now up

2006-12-27T01:31:00.000+08:00

Finally done my flickr... see it here. Do pop by to take a look. Any feedback is very much appreciated! Thanks.

To all the RI peeps: Enjoy what's left of your holidays (if you're not chiong-ing chinese homework...)

Merry christmas

2006-12-23T22:56:00.000+08:00

Aiyah quite some time never blog liao... very busy recently with RIPB, science club ESP, OBS etc. stuff. budden i'm a little bit of a workaholic...

Came back from thailand a few days ago, had quite a fun trip. Some friends brought my family on a road trip to west and north thailand, then we go back to bangkok for shopping. my mum quite addicted to shopping in bangkok, but the things are really cheap... we came back with 4 boxes, luggage exactly just nice, 1 more kg then overweight. The food also very good, somemore got $2 ramen shop (hachiban ramen)... i love jap food. I fly budget (tiger airways) then comeback that time raining, no aerobridge so got to chiong to terminal from plane, like joker like that. but $9 ticket (plus around $50 taxes and surcharge) cannot complain lah...

Haiz, 4 years go thailand 6 times liao (bangkok 4 times - yes my mum addicted to shopping, then phuket 2 times) Next year dowan to go thailand anymore. Go australia better. Go japan or europe even better but very ex, though it's damn nice. I've been to hamburg, germany before, and it's so lovely.

Have a blessed christmas everyone! And go listen to some christmas carols from the mrbrown show... but admidst all the celebration and shopping, let's not forget what we are celebrating: the birth of Jesus, who came to earth as a sacrifice for our sins, and whose death paid for our sins and brought us forgiveness and eternal life. Let us not let this true meaning of christmas be lost in a shopping spree and a windfall of presents.

Tongue in cheek

2006-12-08T21:27:00.000+08:00

Btw, i'll be away in thailand from 9-19 dec... going bangkok, chiangmai, some province in west thailand and some hilltop national park in north-west thailand (yes it's the 3rd year running i'm going to bangkok... my mum's addicted to shopping in MBK, and i just love the SGD$2 ramen at ichiban ramen). My parents' thai friends will be bringing us around. Apparently they say the nightime temp at that hilltop park is 5deg! As cold as beijing ?! We'll see...

Beijing exchange programme

2006-12-03T22:26:00.000+08:00

Beijing was fun. I'll leave the political-economical analytical ramblings on China tourism and economic development and capitalism vs communism blah blah blah till another post... so here is just the fun side of it :-)

The city

With capitalism taking hold, displacing communism, and its rapid economic development, Beijing was seriously better than I expected. Well, while toilets at the great wall still stink, much of Beijing is clean and, shockingly, green - on the roadsides, and in the many parks (a reflection as the city's historic status as the emperor's home). Ok, correction, most trees in warm temperate climate are deciduous, and it's late autumn/winter now, but you get the point. Crime is at at a record low. The streetscape is starting to look a bit like japan.

There's still plently of congestion everywhere - in the airport, in their MRT, on the roads (you're probably better off walking during peak hours, save for the wintery weather), but heavy and continued investment in infrastructure (e.g. tiered road interchanges, up-and-coming MRT lines, more and new buses) has indeed helped to solve the problem.

The weather

Much better than singapore, to say the least. But seriously, I prefer cold weather :-) Dun sweat at all... This time, weather at beijing was around 6 to -2, and there was very light snow on sat morning.

The sights & the shopping

Ok we went to the usual tourist attractions... great wall, tiananmen, forbidden city, bla bla bla... but what really struck me was the richness of history and culture in beijing.

Oh and I did quite a bit of shopping :-) Most are dirt cheap, if u know how to bargain. But many of the shops will jack up the price if they see u r a foreigner, so while shopping with china pple, i shut up and got them to bargain for me - well, I look local enough, but i'll give the game away once i open my mouth. And another big sore point is their service... mostly damn lousy... and they'll try to cheat you by giving you fake notes (luckily i didn't kena this) as well as try not to give you your change (more than one shop "forgot" to give me until i asked).

Ok, in fact, too much shopping. My luggage quite badly overweight (luckily they didn't care as it was group check-in) and i had to sit on top to close it. Heng ah can close...

The school & the students

Again, in many ways a pleasant surprise. 人大附中 School facilities are good (in some aspects better than RI.. especially the canteen food). The students are damn enthu and really demonstrate class and school spirit (nationalism?) - unlike here. Ok I said i'll leave the analysis of capitalism and collective action till another post... so I'll resist... And they are really warm and welcoming. I had 2 buddies (xiaoyao and xiaodi), since the one that came to singapore (xiaoyao) and I attended class with couldn't host me for homestay. Both r really nice, and so is xiaoyao's class (junior 2/13) - had a really nice time talking to them, interacting with them, and they gave me a whole lot of things. Big thanks to them for making this trip such a pleasant one

But china's education system still has room for improvement. It focuses too much on memorisation and rote learning, and too little on independent critical and creative thinking. My buddy's mum ranted a lot on this... but seriously, you can't have much discussion with class sizes of 50. Anyhow, despite this, their students are really smart, and their willingness to work hard will serve them well.

Btw.... the pic to the left is of special significance to jianxiong. Ok jianxiong i'm not spilling the beans here.

The food

Quite good. Especially those signature specialities like beijing duck, zhajiang noodle etc. It's mostly spicier, salitier, oilier, and fatter than singapore - pretty scrumptions, but not for the health-conscious. If you're on a weight-loss progamme, beijing's probably not fo you. Food's much cheaper than singapore too.

Accomodation

Above expectations. We stayed in the school's hostel, and it's definitely much better than RI boarding (from what I heard). Pretty clean, with all the necessary facilities, and good heating and hot water. They even have an "activity room" with table tennis tables, dvd player etc. etc.

Final notes

Quite a fun trip :-) And certainly an eye-opening one. Thanks to all those who have made this trip possible, and I also thank the lord for keeping me safe

P.S. more photos available on jianxiong's photo album . Some photos mine, some his. Specific people welcome to request specific photos (hinthint)