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30 most recent entries
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
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| 10:45 pm » |
The J-thing's Observation of the Day |
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| Saturday, June 20th, 2009
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| 1:20 am » |
"One of these kids is not like the others...." |
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A couple of days ago, LTA announced the approved names for 14 stations in the Circle and Downtown Lines. Check out the names and see if you can spot which one's the odd one out:Final name (working name)
Haw Par Villa (West Coast)
Caldecott (Thomson)
Telok Ayer (Cross Street)
Downtown (Landmark)
Bayfront (Bayfront)
Rochor (Rochor)
Stevens (Stevens)
Tan Kah Kee (Duchess)
Sixth Avenue (Sixth Avenue)
King Albert Park (Blackmore)
Beauty World (Beauty World)
Hillview (Hillview)
Cashew (Cashew)
Bukit Panjang (Petir) Well, what was glaringly obvious to me was that every single station was named after a geographical location except one: Tan Kah Kee, which was named after a person. In fact, if you look at the entire public transport rail map, not a single tube station is named after a person—apart from Newton, Yishun, MacPherson, Bartley, Boon Keng, Mountbatten, and Clementi (yes, that's actually a person's name, for all you historically disinclined people), which are named after the physical location named after a person.
The difference between those and Tan Kah Kee, however, is that the area which the station is located is not called Tan Kah Kee—it's called Bukit Timah or Dunearn. Even the estate where the station is to be located is called Duchess or Watten (which were the other shortlisted names).
How did the station come to be called Tan Kah Kee then? What happened is that the staff, students, and alumni of Hwa Chong and Chinese High, upon hearing of LTA's public consultation exercise to name the stations, started a campaign to name the station 'Hwa Chong', in spite of the fact that LTA had already stated that "the names chosen should identify the station readily and also have a link to the heritage of the neighbourhood [but] should not be named after public structures, or commercial and residential developments". So they campaigned to have it named 'Kah Kee' instead; after all, LTA said a station should not be named after public structures, but they didn't say it can't be named after a public person what.
No offence to Hwa Chong people (after all, it could happen to any one of us), but I think this is another example of how daft people can become when they stop thinking and adopt herd mentality. Can you imagine what would happen if Bras Basah station was named 'De La Salle' or 'St Joseph's' instead (because it's right next to the Old SJI), or if the Esplanade station had been named 'Rajaratnam' (since the Durian was Rajaratnam's idea), or Novena Station had been named 'Tan Tock Seng', or Potong Pasir had been named 'St Andrew's' or 'Sherman Venn' (after the founder of SAS)? Tourists are going to be so puzzled trying to get to Bukit Timah wondering what/where on earth 'Tan Kah Kee' is because they can't find it on a map!
This is why something integral to public transport, such as a tube station, should not be named after a person or even a public structure or commercial development. LTA rightfully pointed this out when they forbade the names of the latter as those structures or developments could move away or be demolished and the physical link to the station name lost. For the same reason, stations should not be named after people because there is hardly any physical link in the first place! In fact, it might even have been more appropriate if it were named 'Hwa Chong', because at least there is a physical presence to link the station name to its surroundings, and would "identify the station readily" (as LTA stipulated). As far as I can recall, in all the cities around the world that I've been to, all the tube stations are named after physical and geographical place names, not people.
On the note of being readily identifiable, I bet that once the Circle Line is operational, a lot of people are going to end up waiting for friends at Farrer Road station when they said Farrer Park instead.( Hwa Chong founder gets station )
§ Technorati tags:
 darwin award;
 news bites
§ current mood: "har...???"
§ current music: U2 – Where The Streets Have No Name
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 24 "
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| Friday, June 19th, 2009
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| Sunday, May 31st, 2009
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| 2:56 am » |
No TYS, how? Complain lor. |
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"You know one thing about Singaporeans? This complain, that complain, everything also complain. This also cannot, that also cannot. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. So like that how? He say 'go', I say 'go', then just go lah!"
No wonder even an MP says we're being too mollycoddled. Here's one example:http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_381011.html
May 24, 2009
10-year series back
Copyright issue involving reprints of past Cambridge exams has been resolved
By Estelle Low and Kimberley Lim
Maths and science are bestsellers while others like principles of accounts and food and nutrition are less popular due to a smaller pool of exam candidates.
After almost six months, publisher Michelle Yoo might finally stop receiving frantic phone calls.
Her firm, Singapore Asian Publications, has received more than 50 calls daily from parents, teachers and students since the start of the year.
They wanted to know why they could not buy copies of the sought-after 10-year series, which compiles questions from past O- and A-level exams into books by subject.
The series was pulled because of a copyright issue.
For more than 40 years, the series, affectionately called TYS, has been relied upon by many students to beef up their confidence and exam smarts.
Dunman High student Lee Kang Lin, 18, said: 'The TYS gives us a very good gauge of what we will eventually face in the Cambridge exam. Whenever we approach our seniors for help, they always refer us to the TYS.'
There is good news now. The Ministry of Education (MOE) told The Sunday Times in an e-mail on Friday that the copyright issue had been resolved, and that the series will be back in July.
The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and the copyright holder, the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), reached an agreement on Friday.
For the past few months, students have been making do with preliminary exam papers from various schools, or scrambling to get copies of the TYS bought previously by others.
When told the good news, Kang Lin, however, said the release of the TYS in July may be 'too late'. What Kang Lin doesn't seem to appreciate is that if the TYS is only released in July, it is released in July for everyone, not just for his school. That doesn't put him at a disadvantage at all, so why would it be 'too late'? Or is it that without the TYS, you're screwed and can't study? Without the TYS, your brain turns to mush because there's nothing to memorise? Without the TYS, you're dead?
We should demystify this TYS from being some sort of heaven-sent manna.
The crux of the article is something that I have been thinking of for some time: that this over-reliance on the TYS ultimately provides an inaccurate representation of education, for the national obsession with results and rankings drives our students to believe that the be all and end all is simply how many As or points you have on that results chit.
I wrote a long time ago about the arbitrariness of the system: how your performance in any exam could very well be arbitrary, a fluke, instead of an accurate gauge of what you have learnt, and more importantly, how you can apply this 'knowledge'. The TYS, in my opinion, is really the epitome of rote learning. Just keep doing the TYS, answer as many questions as you can and see how they are answered. If you do enough of them, surely some questions that come up in your real exam, you would have seen before.
I say that if we truly want to foster creative thinking along with true understanding and application in our education system instead of being the robot factory we have erstwhile been described, then get rid of the TYS once and for all.
I'm not saying that the TYS is altogether useless—it does have its merits. But when people start to regard it not as an aid but a need, the emphasis has gone wrong somewhere. While I must admit that in my day, I did use the TYS as well to some extent, the problem with the TYS is that it becomes a disadvantage if everyone uses it and you don't, so if we want to purge the problem of this over-reliance on the TYS, the only way is to stop everyone from using it at all. That's why this copyright issue could actually have been a good thing for the Singaporean education system.
But it seems that it is not to be: the TYS will reappear this year—it has only been delayed—and schools nation-wide will continue to trumpet this bastion of rote-learning, gearing students towards rigorous and repetitive regurgitation, rather than real, practical application. After all, in a larger sense, this overemphasis on the result-oriented and not system-oriented TYS is perhaps symptomatic of the national philosophy of our Machiavellian society: where the ends justify the means.
Small wonder that even today, whenever anyone has any form of unbridled passion in anything that is not Maths, Science, or economically productive, they invariably get shot down.
Any teachers out there, it would be interesting to know what your personal opinion on the TYS is.
§ Technorati tags:
news bites;
 social commentary
§ current mood: grim
§ current music: Icehouse – Electric Blue
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 16 "
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| Thursday, May 28th, 2009
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| 4:24 pm » |
Aaron's Law (or what I learnt from CRM) |
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| 12:54 am » |
Australians #13 |
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I just caught a snippet of this Australian TV show that's supposed to be funny because they do practical joke satires. It's called The Chaser or something like that. What they did in this clip was that in yet another dig at the Catholic church on the paedophilia scandal, the team went to Rome, where they parked a van just outside the Vatican and flimed themselves flying this remote controlled blimp into St Peter's Square. What was really offensive was that they wrote on the blimp in big letters something like "Young boys inside, pull if you want one", and dangled a rope below it for people to tug on. And they flew this thing round and round St Peter's Square, in full view of nuns and tourists alike.
Naturally, they got arrested by the Italian police (which was all shown in the clip) and apparently, they somehow managed to smuggle the clip out of Italy and they actually screened this on national television back here in Australia. Later, it seems that the Italians released the crew without any charges.
Now this is seriously not funny at all. It's one thing to crack jokes or make snide satires about it in your own home country, but it's totally another to go all the way to Rome to diss the church in their face over their own land. And even after they were arrested and questioned, with their equipment seized, their top priority still seemed to be getting the footage back home to Australia.
But you know what, ABC actually defended the stunt, saying it was "approved by ABC TV. No one has yet been charged and anyone who is charged will have our full support. We are certainly glad they’re all safely home." If they think it's so funny, why don't they go to Tiananmen Square and fly a blimp there saying 'FREE TIBET'? Or a blimp over Teheran dissing the Ayatollah, instead of being cowards, choosing only targets they know will treat them gently.
I say the Italian authorities should have just charged the morons with whatever transgressions they did commit and jail them if necessary. BTW, these are the same people who got arrested for slipping through security at an APEC summit in a motorcade masquerading as the Canadian delegation, and then have someone dressed as Osama bin Laden come out of the car somewhere near where George W. Bush was. Being a celebrity or a 'comedian' should not be taken as a Get Out Of Jail Free card. Just ask Christopher Lee.
If they can actually show this on primetime television, it only shows that enough Australians think this kind of thing is entertainment and harmless fun. Really gives you a peek into how fucked up their psyche is, isn't it?
In another case, I'm sure you've heard of Bar Mat Girl by now. Basically this Melbourne mother went to Phuket for a holiday and was arrested for stealing a bar mat from the Aussie Bar there. She claims that she didn't know the huge-ass, heavy bar mat was in her bag because her 2 friends put it there as a prank (yeah, right). And she got arrested by the police, started whining for Australia to intervene, her kids appeared on TV whining for mummy, Kevin Rudd and the Victoria state premier stepped in, and she got released after a plea bargain.
The whole country seems to stand behind her and heap scorn on Thailand and its barbaric treatment of the woman. When she was finally released, they interviewed her at the airport as though she were some heroine and broadcast footage of her declaring defiantly "no Thai!" when asked what her first dinner back home was going to be.
Well, it turns out that the cops actually just wanted to give the woman a warning but her reaction was to abuse the policemen and then try to make a run for it and they had to go after her in hot pursuit. So she was arrested not so much for the bar mat per se but because of her attitude to the cops. Now any idiot knows that if the cops anywhere want to talk to you and you not only try to run but you are abusive and then later try to bribe them, saying that you know "that's the way the system works", you're only asking for a lot of trouble.
The Victoria premier later criticised the Thais for their "overreaction", saying: "I would have thought for the Thai government and the Thai authorities at a time of the global financial crisis when everybody wants tourism, this isn't going to help them. Who would go to Thailand for a holiday if you could get arrested for having fun in a bar?"
Whoa, so he thinks stealing stuff when you're overseas is fun??? And that it's perfectly alright to abuse, bribe and run from police overseas? The next time I'm down in Melbourne, if I try doing something like that to the Melbourne police, are they going to believe that it's all harmless fun?
You know, together with all the shouting, screaming and general rowdiness in public places, how some Australians determine 'fun' and 'funny' really show how crude and uncivilised they can be.
§ Technorati tags:
darwin award;
 online bitching
§ current mood:  infuriated
§ current music: The Ting Tings – Shut Up and Let Me Go
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 7 "
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| Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
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| 2:01 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| 1:32 am » |
The J-thing's Observation of the Day |
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| Monday, May 25th, 2009
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| 2:01 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Sunday, May 24th, 2009
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| 2:02 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Friday, May 22nd, 2009
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| 2:02 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Thursday, May 21st, 2009
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| 2:02 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
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| 2:02 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| 12:09 am » |
Microsoft FTW! |
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Caveat Lector: This entry might be rude to some, so avoid if easily offended
by Hokkien slang terms for parts of human anatomy
I was going to blog about something serious tonight but I after checking Twitter/Tumblr a while ago I just stop laughing so it'll have to wait, hahahahahaha!
What is so funny? Well, turns out Microsoft has unveiled a new software product currently still under R&D.
And of all things in the world, they decided to call it 'CIBAI':Cibai: An abstract interpretation-based static analyser for modular analysis and verification of Java classes
Francesco Logozzo
January 2007
We introduce Cibai a generic static analyser based on abstract interpretation for the modular analysis and verification of Java classes. We present the abstract semantics and the underlying abstract domain, a combination of an aliasing analysis and octagons.
We discuss some implementation issues, and we compare Cibai with similar tools, showing how Cibai achieves a higher level of automation and precision while having comparable performances. And naturally the Twitterverse is awash with loads and loads of puns.
( Among the best )
This is going to go down in history, along with the Google Paypal-killer... called 'GBuy' (which has already been quickly renamed), and the initial (but also later hastily revised) logo of the UK Office of Government Commerce, which looks like this:
Can't see what's so funny? Er... turn it 90° clockwise. In typical British humour, they quipped that "on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters OGC—and it is not inappropriate to an organisation that’s looking to have a firm grip on Government spend".
There's no way though, that Microsoft can explain classic lines like "...we compare Cibai with similar tools, showing how Cibai achieves a higher level of automation...." Hahahahahahahaha!!!
§ Quod vide:
Mr Brown: Cibai the latest trending topic on Twitter
Digg: Microsoft names new software after slang term for vagina
§ Technorati tags:
darwin award;
 funnies
§ current mood: ROFLCOPTER!
§ current music: The Pussycat Dolls – When I Grow Up
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 6 "
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| Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
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| 2:03 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Monday, May 18th, 2009
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| 2:01 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| 12:09 am » |
The J-thing's Observation(s) of the Day |
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You know, it just occurred to me that perhaps one of the (many) reasons why more and more men are putting off getting married or evading it altogether is due to the gender inequality known as 'alimony'. It is a fact enshrined in the Women's Charter that regardless of how much a woman earns, it is still her husband's duty to maintain her—even after a divorce. This is flawed on 2 levels: 1) it presupposes that women are inferior to men and require men to maintain them, and 2) a man has to pay alimony to maintain his ex-wife should he earn more than her but it does not apply vice versa (I'm under the impression that the court may even order him to pay alimony to his higher-income ex-wife, but I'm not sure).
Given this glaring piece of discrimination, it's hardly surprising that many men feel that marriage is a raw deal. What I am surprised at (and deeply admire) is that in 1996, NMP and former AWARE President (Old Guard) Dr Kanwaljit Soin spoke up in Parliament to amend this inequality but was overruled by Abdullah Tarmugi, because his "upbringing and background [tells him] that it is the duty of the husband to maintain his wife". So wives can sue their husbands for maintenance if they are financially neglected and in need, both while the marriage legally subsists and after divorce. Men cannot do the same even if they are ill or destitute and their wives or ex-wives are more than able to support them. And the Government wonders why they need to pour so many resources into persuading people to get married, even if they are beautifully imperfect. Actually it would help if they didn't shoot themselves in the foot.
Speaking of the Government shooting itself in the foot, when WKS made that comment that the media coverage on the AWARE fiasco was not "sufficiently balanced", did he just shoot himself in the foot? Now more people will go to 'new media' like blogs for their credible coverage lor. -_-
And speaking of pride and the need to save face:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/429702/1/.html
Casino mulls alternatives to whale shark exhibit
Posted: 16 May 2009 1809 hrs
SINGAPORE : A Singapore casino developer said Saturday it was considering alternatives to its plan to exhibit whale sharks, the world's largest fish, which had run into strong opposition from animal welfare groups.
"We have started to explore plans for an alternative to a whale shark exhibit," Krist Boo, the spokeswoman for Resorts World at Sentosa, told AFP.
Resorts World at Sentosa, one of two casino resorts being built in Singapore, had planned to import the whale sharks for its Marine Life Park (MLP) which is set to become the world's biggest oceanarium upon completion.
The park however said its move was not due to pressure by the seven animal welfare groups which have launched an online petition that has gathered more than 9,000 signatures.
"The MLP team does not take its responsibilities to both conservation and Singapore lightly and as such, we spent the past two years doing much groundwork," it said in a statement to AFP.
"We strongly believe that our action must be governed by the conservation of this species rather than what is dictated by fleeting public opinion."
Alternative options to the whale shark exhibit being considered by the MLP were shown to the various animal welfare groups last month, it said.
( Read more... ) Eh, if you realise you're wrong just admit you're wrong lah. First you plan to house the big sharks, then when people make noise you U-turn, but then you say that you U-turn not because people make noise but because you take your "responsibilities to both conservation and Singapore" seriously.
If you did in the first place, then you would be exploring the feasibility of putting whale sharks in your exhibit instead of already planning to do so right?
Then they try to save face already not enough, must still go and slam the animal welfare groups by calling them "fleeting public opinion". Hello, the public opinion is telling you that conservation of the sharks are more important than your exhibit lah! If you really think they are irrelevant/insignificant, then why are you showing your alternative options under consideration to them for?
Some people really packaging fail lor.
§ Technorati tags:
 observations;
social commentary
§ current mood: "really meh?"
§ current music: A.R. Rahman & The Pussycat Dolls – Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 5 "
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| Sunday, May 17th, 2009
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| 2:01 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Saturday, May 16th, 2009
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| 2:01 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Friday, May 15th, 2009
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| 2:02 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| 1:29 am » |
Road Trip! BNE & Surfer's Paradise |
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| Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
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| 2:01 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
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| 2:04 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Monday, May 11th, 2009
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| 10:40 pm » |
Trying my hand at steak |
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OK I wasn't particularly pleased with the end result (heat too strong so not very well cooked on the inside) but I think the marinade experiment was quite a success:
Mix honey mustard marinade with a dash of olive oil, a dash of water, and add a tsp each of garam masala, turmeric, cummin, coriander flakes, and a few pinches of garlic, ground black pepper, salt, and while mixing, squeeze in an eighth of a lemon's juice and some Lea & Perrin's worcestershire sauce. Marinate scotch fillet and sliced mushrooms in it, then fry on a pan until medium-rare. I think for a first attempt, it was... passable? :P
Next up: Yukke, yeah!
§ Technorati tags:
 cooking
§ current mood:  satisfied
§ current music: Tonic – If You Could Only See (acoustic)
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 7 "
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| Saturday, May 9th, 2009
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| 5:54 pm » |
Why Tell Teens Homosexuality Is Neutral |
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You know the recent U-turn MOE did over the AWARE CSE? Apparently it was to do with 'suggested responses' which were supposedly "too explicit and inappropriate" which were found in a trainers' manual. One of the statements was 'Anal sex can be healthy if done with consent and with condoms to protect from STDs'. And the other was 'Homosexuality is perfectly normal. Just like heterosexuality, it is simply the way you are'.
Naturally this provoked an outcry—an outcry which the fundies are blowing completely out of proportion (as usual). Ovidia Yu places these statements in context in her excellent blog entry: Why Tell Teens Homosexuality Is Neutral.
I didn't know that the suggested answers were 'emergency responses' but I guessed as much when I heard that the 'suggested responses' were from a confidential trainers' guide that was leaked to the press.
I'm sure even in MOE there are lots of confidential guides restricted to teachers only and which students are not allowed access to.
Now that it's confirmed they are emergency responses, it all makes sense. They were not meant to be used ordinarily, but to move the discussion back to the subject matter quickly if smart alec students try to put the trainer in a spot or attempt to pick on their classmates, and without doing more damage to any children who might already be struggling with their sexuality or being bullied by schoolmates. But if students don’t ask such questions, then the 'suggested responses' are not needed.
If I liken it to our QRH (Quick Reference Handbook), the QRH is the handbook which is kept in the cockpit within easy reach and which we take out in emergency and abnormal situations to diagnose what's wrong and what corrective actions need to be taken. The QRH is divided into 3 sections: red pages are emergencies, yellow pages are abnormal indications, and white pages are advisories. Now, on most flights, the you don't have to even touch the QRH because everything goes smoothly. However, should some abnormal indication appear, we would quickly take out the QRH to diagnose and resolve it such that nobody behind even realises something was amiss. Needless to say, the red portion is very, very important when required, but such dire and critical situations are quite a rarity.
Similarly, these suggestive statements are emergency responses meant to be used only in the most dire and critical of situations, not freely explained to the students undergoing the programme. I mean, there is a reason why the trainers' guide was supposed to be confidential, right?
§ Quod vide:
Ovidia: Already plotting next move
YB: Education ministry suspends AWARE's sexuality education programme
§ Technorati tags:
social commentary
§ current mood: "seriously lor...."
§ current music: Silverchair – The Greatest View
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" Squawk 0912, you are Number 2 "
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| 3:45 am » |
Depriving a village somewhere of an idiot |
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I came back from my super-early morning sim today to the amazing news that finally, after 13 months, the intelligence agencies and security forces have finally arrested Mas Selamat Kastari on 1 April (I hope it's not an April Fool's joke). Well, if only they had caught him 3 months earlier, perhaps they could have averted the no-brainer statement from WKS that there were only 2 possibilities: one, he is in Singapore and hidden by sympathisers unknown to the authorities, or, two, he has fled the country, but "it's very hard to say. Both scenarios are plausible. Maybe the second one is more plausible."
But the real no-brainers worthy of the J-thing's Darwin Award must be these guys—remember them? I wonder how much money from their savings as well as their time have they spent on this wild goose chase. And what did they get for their troubles? Maybe honorary citizenship in a couple of Indonesian villages, I suppose. After all, every village needs an idiot.
§ Technorati tags:
darwin award
§ current mood: hurhur
§ current music: Aerosmith – Love In An Elevator
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| 2:05 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Friday, May 8th, 2009
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| 2:03 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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| Thursday, May 7th, 2009
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| 2:02 am » |
The J-thing's Twitters for the Day |
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