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Monday, Nov 02, 2015 - 00:35 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

One More Stretch

Been spending the weekend buffing up the ol' thesis, while alt-tabbing to cute hamster photos for relief. There remain a number of concerns to be addressed, but one gets to appreciate evidence that somebody actually read what you wrote in this line (even if they were obliged to)


Hamster in the hole!
(Original source: Youtube)


And, introducing the runners-up:



Ten-Three-Five Special

Mr. Ham: Now, what's this going on? More besmirching of our reputations? Why, human...

Me: Ah, just the hamster. I was about to start the latest updates on our favourite East Asian behemoth. Lots going on up there, what with the 18th Central Committee outlining their thirteenth five-year plan, targeting "minimum 6.5% growth".

Mr. Ham: *digs into cheek pouch* Dang it, where was that cheatsheet that Dr. Chang handed to me last week... ah, here it is. *peers at paper* Ooh, there's a row for that exact figure. Hmm, bad recession in the works, I gather.

Me: Say what you will, but they're sparing no effort in making 十三五 cool, akin to our leadership's past hip-hop efforts.



...which would have been a teeny bit more of a relief had it not come on the heels of a CCP directive forbidding criticism. But, hey, catchy tune! Then again, the one-child policy being repealed has stolen all the limelight from the economy, even if it was probably the main driver behind the move.

Mr. Ham: So, our modern mandarins have found that gaming demographics to artificially inflate the worker-to-dependant ratio is terrific... until the trend reverses.

Me: Well, let's not come down too hard on them, it sort of worked. However, this change won't have much of an impact for a couple of decades, even assuming that families respond. The stock market has spoken, though, and an economics professor has suggested that it'll be fine and dandy if guys learn how to share - which does have some precedent. Which reminds me, Graeber's plumping for a crash too. Ah, China's population woes does put Singapore's in perspective.

Mr. Ham: We had the cool videos too, remember?

Me: Keeping to the subject, the China subreddit is a pretty informative place to lurk for those who want uncensored expat wiseguy opinions on the country, and you get occasional gems like this no-holds-barred discussion on whether readers would like China to... *gasp* fail.

The prevailing view appears to be that wishing outright failure would be foolhardy, not the least because it would likely drag the rest of the world down, even without considering the billion-plus souls within the borders. However, commentators aren't seeing too many roses either, what with even actual well-meaning reforms likely causing things to get worse before they get better. Some are rightly fearing the tried-and-tested swing towards nationalism to distract from domestic troubles, which the current brinksmanship in the South China Sea could be interpreted as.

Mr. Ham: Hey, gotta throw a fuss to get a good negotiating position to start from.

Me: It should be noted that it's not all blind pro-Western rhetoric there, with plenty of parallels drawn between China and America, the most amusing perhaps being that China could be considered to be fairer in a way since one can bribe one's way from the bottom to the top, whereas the capitalist USA requires you to garner a certain amount of wealth before you can afford to lobby your way to being really rich. That's one way of looking at it, I suppose.

Very coincidentally, the prospect of many more second-borns was followed by an international study finding that I.Q. is expected to fall by 1.5 points for each step down the birth order. The obvious question, then, was whether the parents' ages and attention were accounted for:


You know how it goes...
(Source: designtaxi.com)



Nothing To See Here, Move Along

Obviously, I'd be happy if everybody could just chug along steadily, but then the preponderance of evidence seems to be that they're just making the numbers up - and leaving the bad ones out - as they go along.


Between 2007 and 2010, nothing happened.
(Source: qz.com)


At a higher level, all this will be taken as a test of whether China's "democratic meritocracy" - whereby citizens are allowed to choose small fry, but the party picks the big shots because they know best, which is how a certain city-state happens to be run - is tenable. To be fair, this may sound attractive when one realises that The Donald remains a frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

One theory I've been toying with is that Western-style democracy could be a reverse indicator - they chop and change and contest because they are prosperous, and not the other way around. In analogy, the Nordics treat their prisoners extremely humanely because, well, they can afford to (at least for now), whereas when the Kempeitai took over, it was beheadings for petty theft to maintain order. You can do a lot of cute stuff when you're rolling in dosh, yes.

Returning to said city-state, the Workers' Party has recently called for a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the Hepatitis C case at SGH... which brought the official response that evidence is required for the COI to be convened, alongside other curiously defensive statements. One could reasonably wonder at the point of having a COI if one already has the evidence, but I guess that's one expression of not wanting to hear any complaints. 人证物证书证科证司法检证, 缺 一不可!

There were also the recurrent grouses over the local arts scene, concurrent with a call by the relevant minister to develop local writers, scarce few months after pulling funding for an acclaimed comic book because it actually covered issues. Come to think of it, that's probably why "Enid Blytons and Roald Dahls" were specifically encouraged - please, stick to Famous Five and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other kids' tales, tolong don't go pull a Rushdie on us can? How about downloading the Internet instead?

The local comic scene does seem comparatively healthy, that said, with our very own quantum physics expert getting featured, and there's a bunny in a cat suit (though further research reveals that the reverse is far more common)!

[N.B. Totally random physics puzzle: how would you calculate the speed of light with a microwave oven?]

...and, if that's not to taste, there's always being a mermaid.


Unexpected Connections

Coming across Matt Ridley's (he of The Red Queen fame) recent Wall Street Journal essay on how directed scientific research (i.e. basic science) seldom drives actual innovation, I couldn't help but recall Taleb's concept of antifragility (covered here in 2013). In fact, it sounded so much like what Taleb himself would have written (despite the essay not once mentioning Taleb or antifragility), that I had to wonder if Ridley had been influenced by him... and it transpires that he had indeed written a glowing review of the book several years ago (also for the WSJ). And, Ridley was the chairman of the now-nationalised Northern Rock bank back in 2007. Wow.

[Trivia: The Red Queen isn't the Queen of Hearts.]

As for Taleb, a recent notebook update has him predicting that lowered energy storage costs will cause solar power to explode in use. China's already onto hybrid mushrooms.


I'm Done With Inventing Narrative



And... That's It.


I have nothing to say.




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Next: Same Old Bleepity Bleep


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2 comments

shawnkwek said...
when getting the new hamster? I don't see the new cage which is normally an evident precursor to a new pet.


November 4, 2015 - 11:15 SGT     
gilbert said...
Still holding auditions.


November 4, 2015 - 20:42 SGT     

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