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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008 - 03:11 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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Monopoly on Projects

Today's special: Put Singapore on the world map.


Just to complete the very brief USA presidential candidate roundup. See also more comprehensive comparisms of their stands.

Barack Hussien Obama

Pros:

  • First (part) black president! Again, breaks new ground.
  • Inspirational breath of fresh air.
  • No ties to big money lobbyists - take that!
  • Can reach out to independents and even moderate Republicans supposedly.
  • Consistency on Iraq off the bat.
  • Momentum shmoshmentum behind him.
  • Obama Girl!
Cons:

  • Not experienced, as drummed into heads by HRM, but probably true.
  • Charisma and airy-fairy speeches as a major selling point, since that by itself is neutral - Churchill, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Kennedy etc all had it - but so did Hitler (Godwin's Law inapplicable here).
  • At least technically once a Muslim, now a Christian... May be a tad tough to swallow for leaders of Islamic states where conversion is disallowed.
  • All that background may raise some concerns among staunch conservatives, then again it's not like he's gonna get many of them.
  • Not as much backing from superdelegates either.
John McCain

Pros:

  • Old white man, like 100% of USA Presidents before him - looks the part. Will people hesitate and go for the familiar?
  • Grade A war hero, bled for his country as a POW, hard to see his opponents doing a Kerry on him (though Bush did somehow hammer him on his concern for fellow veterans in 2000, seriously where did that come from, from a guy who got a job defending the USA from Vietcong intercontinental ballistic missiles?).
  • (Most) Republicans will be more or less solidly behind him (at least as the least of three evils, given his maverick reputation), as he does not have any credible competitors, unlike the possibly divided Democrats.
  • Been there, done that, even tried eight years ago.
  • Straight talker.
  • Does reach out to Democrats (and independents), useful since it will be unlikely he will be supported by a GOP House/Congress.
  • Come on, you know his face would just look right on coins.
Cons:

  • Age (72 years) - would be the oldest President beginning his term.
  • Being a Republican after the Bush administration, he runs with legs tied.
  • Would stay in Iraq for 100 years. At least he didn't start that one.
  • Gives the feel of being more of a default choice and existing as a vote against the Democratic candidate than actually for something.
  • Values "clean government" (whatever that is) over free speech.



Already getting swamped by academic stuff in the first half of the semester, not that surprising given that each module has some sort of project or presentation attached - at least one's over already. Doing lab marking has lifted my estimation of teachers, as it turns out that it is rather time-consuming, assuming that it is to be done well.

<.> so theres no actual incentive to mark to a good standard nothing except.. duty. conscience. academic spirit. blah blah
<g!ys> yeah

 Generally all the students knew what they were doing, just that they don't really follow output formatting to the letter (or more accurately, character) just yet - so only a relatively small portion got full marks (N.B. Lab assignment marks don't count in this module, they are just practice for the lab exam). A bit surprised at the reaction a primary school relief teacher got when he posted several "star" essays on his blog, though. While not in the absolute best of taste, there was probably a negligible chance that the kids involved would stumble upon their masterworks (though the public nature of the Internet has been debated in the Wee Shu Min case), and he didn't mention any names - so how little can he quote verbatim before he gets hauled up?

Then again, if I got something like this (from SgForums), I would have to publish it for posterity:


Pure Undistilled Genius



A Norwegian with one left peg, a crippled Aussie and a hardworking but luckless Dutchman walk into a bar. The barman (a Liverpool fan) says, "Is this some kind of a joke?"

 The focus here is on United though, as they recovered in splendid fashion to gun down Arsenal by four to nothing. It was a day when Darren Fletcher played like Ronaldo, which explains a lot. Nani got plenty of attention by giving a trial preview of Kerlon's seal dribble towards the end, but for me the move of the game was Anderson's backheeled nutmeg - does that guy ever give up possession cheaply? And how was that a foul, by the way?


Coincidentally the nutmeg is considered a pretty big insult especially in South America, but then, like stepovers, they don't win the game by themselves, do they?

Funny moment of the game was Adebayor's swan dive:


Yes, yes, Ronaldo does them too, but this was just woefully bad - and at four goals down too, what's the point?



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